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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22522120">The Garden</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Victorian, Creepy Sweet Kylo Ren, Distrust, Emotionally Repressed, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, English manor house in the countryside, Eventual Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gardener Kylo Ren, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Intrigue, Kylux - Freeform, M/M, Master &amp; Servant, Mind Manipulation, Nobleman Armitage Hux, Physical Disability, Protective Kylo Ren, Secrets, Slow Burn, Sorcerer Alchemist Kylo Ren, Virgin Armitage Hux, dark london, intersex / hermaphrodite character, slight hand fetish, victorian au, wheelchair</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 11:21:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>29,065</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22522120</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After saving him from being attacked in an alleyway during a visit to London, Kylo Ren is taken on as a gardener by Armitage Hux, a reclusive antisocial nobleman confined to a wheelchair. While at times wavering in his resolve, Kylo continues to try and break through the other’s cold exterior by means of the work set out for him, hoping that with time he could bring some light back into Armitage's solitary life, and perhaps, his own.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Armitage Hux &amp; Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>96</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The carriage moved slowly along rough country roads while Kylo looked alternatively at his feet, the view of autumn mist and bog land outside the window, and the man sitting rigidly in the seat in front of him.</p><p>For a long time he had hoped to get out of the London factory lines, never imagining how waywardly fate would throw him an opportunity in the most unlikely of places.</p><p>He had been walking home that night, winding his way through dirty alleyways from the cheap inn where he usually dined, when the sound of a scuffle reached his ears. On other days he would turn another way, yet his blood was boiling with anger after hearing that another week’s wages would be delayed and so against better judgement he proceeded ahead towards the shouting. He could just make out the voice of one of them pleading for his life, offering money even to dissuade the assailant. But it was no ordinary assault or robbery, for the attacker would not yield even then. Kylo brought down the bald heavyset man with a stone to the side of his head, the corpulent body falling to the ground with a thud at the feet of one who seemed to press himself further against the brick wall even as his defender offered him a hand.</p><p>He was well dressed in a black greatcoat and leather boots, one foot strangely askew as if it was broken or deformed. His ginger hair adding to the contrast of his pale skin, the hue of one who clearly spent little time out of doors. </p><p>Kylo remembered how much persuading it took to for the stranger to accept his offer to help him to a coach, despite the struggle it would have been for him to make his way out of the alleyway alone. He wondered how or why he was there in the first place, but Lord H., as he introduced himself, was not inclined to be communicative.</p><p>They walked slowly while Armitage leaned against Kylo’s arm, supporting the rest of his weight upon an ebony cane until they were near the opera house. Ren watched as the thin haggard man regained his breath, leaning his cane against a bench for a moment, intending to sit down.</p><p>“Will you be alright, sir?” Kylo asked in politeness. Hux’s hands let go of his arm, settled upon the bench.</p><p>“Yes, thank you,” he looked up at the other and then at the crowd of opera goers exiting the grand doors, filling the air with the intermingling sound of distant voices. “You may call me a coach now, and then get on your way”</p><p>Kylo was somewhat displeased with how offhandedly the other dismissed him, but complied all the same, given the circumstances.</p><p>It must be nearly midnight, he thought. A part of him felt disconsolate that the man had not even offered him a few pounds for his aid, towards settling his long overdue rent.</p><p>“Wait!” he heard a voice behind him.</p><p>“Yes, sir?” Kylo turned hopefully, retracing his steps.</p><p>Lord H. seemed to hesitated, looking him over as if not quite having made up his mind. Kylo waited, feeling like a schoolboy that had been summoned before the headmaster, trying to guess which of his transgressions he was in for.</p><p>“Oh very well,” Hux said more to himself, finally making firm eye contact. “I would like to offer you a position – I am in need of a gardener to replace the one that got himself killed a fortnight ago. I suppose you shall do. His widow will give detailed instructs as to my expectations. Your wages will be 140 pounds, Sundays off. Are my terms agreeable to you?”</p><p>“Y-yes, I would be honored” Kylo answered with an awkward bow. This was definitely not what he had been expecting. He tried not to look too pleased, if it should give his new master the impression that he had been too liberal.</p><p>“Good,” Hux brushed off his coat, as if to signal that he was finished with some kind of unpleasant business and was preparing to go.</p><p>“Shall I look for a coach for us now, sir?” Kylo ventured to say, wishing to make an impression of useful initiative. Furthermore, a part of him was afraid that the man would change his mind if he should allow him to linger there for too long with his own thoughts.</p><p>“For <em>us</em>? Do you mean to say that you have no affairs to settle? No goodbyes nor preparations?“ he raised a brow.</p><p>“No sir, I would be glad to leave right away, if that is your desire,” he replied. This was only half true, but he was hardly in a position to make good his debts, nor did he have anyone he might call a friend, having made his way through life as something of a lone wolf ever since his father died.</p><p>“What makes you so <em>eager </em>to escape?” there was a harsh note of accusation Hux’s voice.</p><p>“There is nothing for me in London,” he answered, knowing this vague reply would likely not suffice to appease his benefactor that he was not a petty criminal on the run or something of that sort as he might be suspecting – especially after the first impression which he made, but he felt averse to speaking about his life, especially to someone of Hux’s demeanor. And then, the impression he made must have been the right one.</p><p>“Is that so?” smirked Armitage. “And where do you presume I shall be taking you?”</p><p>“I do not know,” he realized that he had made an unwarranted assumption, yet by some instinct he felt that Lord H. was decidedly not from London. It was not until he had posed the question that Kylo became aware of how naive he was being – to get so excited, to commit himself so rashly, foolishly even. But times had been bad and he was desperate enough to cling to anything that might pull him out of it all in one clean swoop. His fear of debtors’ prison and the darkest parts of life on the street was enough to persuade him, and hope that he in turn could persuade Lord H. to take him on as he had proposed.</p><p>“Well you are correct, it will be a considerable journey – are you sure that you have no belongings that you wish to take?” asked Hux, “or are you hoping that I shall provision you with a new wardrobe at my own expense?”</p><p>“No sir, but I do not wish to waste your time,” he answered tactfully, in truth he did not want Hux to see the sort of place that he lived in or give him the chance to disappear if he were to leave him waiting somewhere.</p><p>“Do you have references?” asked Hux.</p><p>“Not for the line of work that you seek, your lordship. But as you can see I am strong and in decent health, and I hope that I have shown you something of my character already,” Kylo said with all the confidence he could summon.</p><p>“Indeed,” Hux seemed to consider him, not entirely without apprehension. “Very well then, let us go,” he sighed, feeling the lateness of the hour. “Help me onto my feet”</p><p>In contrast, Kylo’s heart raced with a joy that he had missed for a long time as vague fantasies began to form of what the change in his circumstances would mean. He did not mind the chilling night, trying to suppress the smile which threatened to break through.</p><p>He allowed himself to look at his new master, who leaned against his arm like a man in his eighties rather than in his thirties. Surely he was not that much older than himself, although it was difficult to tell. He had a sickly somber look about him which Kylo associated with hypochondriacs. Already he was building an impression of him, tracing his history as a neurotic solitary boy who preferred the company of books to that of his peers – there was something strangely familiar about him -- Lord H.</p><p>He repeated the words in his head, only half aware of helping the man into the coach, being pushed inside by a footman, and the door slamming shut behind them.</p><p>Lord H. Lord H.</p><p>Fragments of memories drifted like ripples in a pool, until he caught the thread of one, a painting which he had once found wrapped in sackcloth in his father’s study. A man in a decorated military uniform, with auburn hair and stern full lips, standing beside an imperious blond with prominent cheekbones, and a waifish boy – their son, holding a wooden model ship.</p><p>...</p><p>“Is it far, sir?”</p><p>“Twenty miles more,” Hux answered, not looking up from the book upon his lap.  Kylo suspected that his mind was elsewhere, however, for he had not turned the page in quite some time. Perhaps he was still dwelling on what happened during the prior night, Kylo guessed, projecting his own thoughts onto him. It vexed him that he did not receive an explanation about why Lord H. was attacked, not believing him when the man said it was merely a robbery. Clearly he was avoiding the topic. Would it be going too far to try and get him to speak? It was a long and tedious journey and Ren decided that he would try and see how far he could get.</p><p>“Were you in London for business or for leisure, sir?” he attempted to make casual conversation, “if you do not mind me asking”</p><p> “For business,” he answered, something in his tone discouraging the attempt at banter. </p><p>“Are you in a trade, sir?” Kylo persisted.</p><p>“No. I manage my father’s estates and pursue my studies”</p><p>“Which studies sir?”</p><p>“Those of my choosing,” he smiled tersely, as if to say that was not a topic he would care to discuss with his gardener.</p><p>“You must have a large library,” Kylo smiled back with a feigned naivety, pleased to see that the reality of the man was aligning to the imagined personage.</p><p>“Yes, are you interested in books?” he forced himself to say in a minimal effort at civility.</p><p>“It has been a long time since I have had any, I might be too much of a restless person for reading. It is the outdoors that I like,” he thought it best to be honest. “Have you traveled much sir? Before your injury I mean,” Kylo added quickly. “Or was it something that you were born with?”</p><p>“You are a curious one aren’t you,” said Hux, pondering over how much to say, and then deciding that there was little worth hiding in the unremarkable tale. “I received my injury as a youth, my father and I had argued and I had taken his horse, thinking to run away. I could not control the beast and it escaped onto the main road until it encountered a coach. I was thrown off and its leg descended upon mine. No, I did not travel much before or after the accident”</p><p>“I am sorry to hear that, sir,” Kylo looked down at his feet again. “What did you and your father argue about? Does it bother you or have you gotten used to it?”</p><p>“One gets used to anything, even if the hours pass by unnervingly slowly, as do the years – sometimes I wonder if I know what to do with them,” Hux forced a mild laugh. He felt uncomfortable to be the object of pity and partially regretted having spoken of the incident.</p><p>“Then you are a man of leisure, to have more hours than you have need of,” Kylo thought to himself that a fortune was wasted upon frail pedantic men such Lord H, thinking of what he might do instead with such freedom and independent means.</p><p>Yet it was futile to feel jealousy, for even in his state, he could not say that he entirely envied the man, who was forced to be dependent upon others and had made enemies willing enough to make an attempt upon his life.</p><p>“Do you enjoy the countryside?” Kylo felt it was better to change the topic.</p><p>“I enjoy it more than the smog. And the crowds, packed in hovels like vermin,” he said with disgust.</p><p>“Are you a supporter of socialist movements sir? Or of workers’ rights? Is that why –“</p><p>“Not particularly, no,” Hux wrinkled his nose as if the topic was something repugnant. “It is the spread of disease that I am averse to, which tends to spawn from dens of vice and wherever beggars and whores cluster”</p><p>“Have you ever visited such ‘dens of vice’ yourself sir?” Kylo knew that this was impertinence but could not help himself. Hux’s eyes flashed upon him for an instant and then looked away.</p><p>“Yes, once,” he smiled mirthlessly at Kylo, who knew that he was about to hear something wicked or depressing. “That was shortly before I had tried to run away”</p><p>Kylo decided that it would likely be both wicked <em>and</em> depressing.</p><p>“I had come of age and it was intended that I become a ‘real man’, so to speak,“ Hux went on, finding strange to hear himself speak of the incident he had repressed for most of his life. At the same time, he could not stop himself. He felt as if he were under a spell, urging him to pour out these untoward confessions before they strangled him as he looked into the young man’s hypotonic eyes, disturbed by their placid inscrutability.</p><p>“Did you become a real man then? By means of the whore?” Kylo said callously.</p><p>“Do not interrupt me,” snapped Hux, his pale cheeks burning red as he felt something of an insult in the servant’s question – like a magic thread between them had been momentarily severed.</p><p>He questioned his own judgement in allowing himself to speak so freely to the vagrant, although he knew all too well the cause – or believed that he knew. Again those eyes tried to pull him in and something in his heart made him feel afraid of them.</p><p>But even inferiors and subordinates had the means to do mischief if given the chance, Hux reflected. He ought not to make that mistaken – of underestimating the boy, who was clever in a world wise way. He considered if it was not too late to rid himself of him, if it was all a mistake. Then he remembered the strange visceral pleasure of his closeness even as he led him into the coach, how had he succumbed to the force of the man’s unspoken persuasions – a kind of magnetism he could not account for.</p><p>“I’m sorry, sir,” Kylo had long been under the impression that these things were commonplace among Hux’s class, according to his father, Brendol Hux was proud to see himself as a connoisseur of such establishments, while his son appeared to be a different sort of creature. Kylo was not yet sure what to make of him.</p><p>“I turned the witch from me and purchased her silence,” said Hux suddenly, some impulse in him insisting that he conclude the unpleasant story.</p><p>“T-the witch?”</p><p>“The whore. He had chosen a hideous one for me on purpose I presume,” he tried to appear nonchalant as he spoke, “so that I would not be tempted to return and waste my inheritance, as he had”</p><p>“Do you not find it tedious, to be so far from the city, your lordship?” Kylo grasped for any topic, even one which they had already discussed. </p><p>“I suppose it suits me,” Hux sensed the other’s attempt and was glad of it. Another side of him felt that it was cathartic, to force his own disturbed confessions upon another, and thereby make them less solely his own.</p><p>“You must have amiable neighbours then,” Kylo said unenthusiastically, feeling that they were both playing some kind of charade of small-talk that neither could properly cut off without sinking into an even more unpleasant silence, or worse.</p><p>“I am obliged to keep up acquaintanceships for the sake of the estate, but I try to discourage further intimacies – they are rather a nuisance,” said Hux with unabashed frankness.</p><p>“Are you more accustomed to London society then?” Kylo ventured to presume that it was some kind of arrogance or insecurity that made him take such airs.</p><p>“And what is this society that you speak of Mr...?”</p><p>“Ren”</p><p>“Ah yes,” he smiled at him unpleasantly, “I have grown unaccustomed to remembering names, not until I am certain that they are more than a passing distraction”</p><p>“I hope that you shall endeavour to remember mine, sir”</p><p>“I see that you are confident in your abilities Mr. Ren”</p><p>“My work will speak for me,”</p><p>“So it shall,” Hux laughed dryly and then turned to look out the window, his face shifting to that of weariness. “I would be loathe to think I have made a mistake by brining you all this way, only to have you sent back” </p><p>He considered to himself how many of his own precepts he had broken – it was unlike him to act impulsively, and yet, he was brining a stranger into his home – a stranger who lacked proper references, and most likely, the barest education. When it came down to it, there was little to recommend this ‘Kylo Ren’ but his ability to knock a man unconscious. </p><p>“I would like to thank you again for...your kindness,” Kylo forced out the words, sensing some cause of apprehension in the other’s gaze, as if he might act upon his threat.</p><p>Although he felt grateful to be offered a job, a gut feeling told him that there was something about the man which he disliked, something that made him wary and distrustful. Maybe he was only mirroring the other’s apparent antipathy, for although he did nothing blatantly impolite, he could hardly be described as sociable. Everything he did or said was like a tactful insult, or was it merely the contrast in their stations that made Kylo think so in self-consciousness. Despite his own proud demeanor, it infuriated him to see arrogance in others, especially when there was little sign of merit.</p><p>Ren felt like some kind of poor relation taken in by a reluctant uncle. Nevertheless, he accepted the offer with an indifference to Lord H’s motives, and he would stand by the decision for the time being. If it came to it, he would have no scruples to simply run away as many a disgruntled servant might do if they found their new master worse than the old. He would make a trial of Armitage Hux.</p><p>“That is unnecessary,” Hux looked at him over the pages of his book with thinly veiled disdain.</p><p>“Forgive me for asking, but why did you do it?” the question fell from his lips.</p><p>In truth, Hux felt that the young man would be of use not only as a laborer but as a guard dog, in case his relations sent other, more capable agents to make another attempt upon him. But this he could hardly say so openly, not wishing to show further signs of weakness before the likes of Kylo Ren.</p><p>“The goodness of my heart,” he said dryly.</p><p>“I do not believe that,” Kylo remarked, burying his emotions behind a mask-like face.</p><p>“It is impudent of a servant to contradict his master,” Hux closed the book languidly and placed it beside him, surveying Ren as if for the first time.</p><p>“I do not consider it charity when a man is prepared to do honest work,” said Kylo, his eyes lingering upon the other’s gloved hands, folded over his lap.</p><p>“I observe that you are very spirited and outspoken, yet these are qualities which you must curtail if you wish to remain under my employment”</p><p>“Some men appreciate frank speech to silent waters which run deep,” the euphemisms were not lost upon Kylo, who could clearly imagine what his so-called master termed it in his own conscience. There, too, was something in Hux which longed to make confessions, that there were grudges and bitter secrets bursting through the seams of him, the years of silence having grown unbearable. He clutched at this picture of Hux, believing it a true one, and using it as his guide on how to maneuver his master to his own desires.</p><p>“You will find that I am not easily drowned, nor intimidated,” Hux leaned back in his seat, regarding Kylo with a mixture of interest and mistrust, “tell me, what was it that inclined you to make such a curious remark?”</p><p>“I think that you attribute more meaning to my words than I had woven into them, although sometimes I find – as strange as this may sound, that I can sense people’s innermost thoughts just by willing it – shaping, soothing, rousing them before I can even realize what I am doing. Perhaps this is only imagination,” answered Kylo, indeed it seemed to him there was a thread of suspicion, paranoia even, in the man’s character which made him worry if he ought not to have admitted as much.  </p><p>He believed that he had managed to discompose Hux, seeing a flash of it in his expression, before he resumed his formal haughty manner, still regarding him piercingly. But there was no longer any sign of that disdainful smile and only time would tell, Kylo mused, whether it was for the better or the worse that he exerted his influence upon him – playing upon the chords of his mind using the force with which he was endowed.</p><p>“<em>Oderint dum metuant</em> [*let them hate so long as they fear],” muttered Armitage.</p><p>“Excuse me, sir?”</p><p>“Those who plot and scheme against me, those who sent the man which you disarmed,” Hux leaned across the gap between them and whispered close to his ear, “it is for them to fear. May their impatience for my death precipitate them into fatal errors by which I shall have them. We shall see what the brute is made of – it will be my personal pleasure to behold his interrogation”</p><p>“Do you enjoy the suffering of men?” Kylo remained still as he felt the other draw close to him, his voice betraying no sign of emotion.</p><p>“It is cathartic, would you not agree?” said Hux, “That is why depictions of Hell are always more fascinating than those of the saints”</p><p>“There are those who turn away from such depictions, but perhaps you are like myself -- and care not what harm you invite by provocation”</p><p>“Like yourself?” he smirked, Hux’s cold slender hand caressed Kylo’s neck, lifting up his chin so that their eyes met.</p><p>The young man sat frozen, not quite comprehending the strange tension that he felt, only sensing it by instinct as something from which to recoil.</p><p>“<em>Nec spe, nec metu</em>. [*without hope, without fear],” Kylo whispered, taking the other’s hand and moving it close to his lips, lightly kissing the pale skin.</p><p>“You certainly are provoking,” Armitage looked at him darkly as he felt the sensation of arousal drift through his body. Drawing away his hand he reclined in his seat, crossing his legs “yet you are an unconvincing cynic”</p><p>“I merely speak the truth. I take what I can get, from whoever is willing to give it -- and at times from those less than willing. But I cannot forget what I am, nor can you. The ways of the world are that the strong must serve the weak, and then be discarded once they outlive their usefulness,” he said venomously.</p><p>Hux looked at him sharply, but Kylo spoke on, his eyes locked upon Armitage’s as images of the past flashed through each of their minds.</p><p>“You think that I am the dirt under your feet and have not the decency to conceal your misanthropy even from one who had saved your life – not until I discover your weaknesses and force them out of you. I usually take my time when making an impression of a man, but you are not entirely a stranger to me. My father had once been an apprentice to the late Brendol Hux, and I see in you the same vindictive and suspicious nature which my father observed in yours – driving him away to a life of misery and squalor, but not such misery as he left behind for himself, of that I am sure. I have seen your kind often, how quickly such men sink after they waste away their ill-begotten fortune. They lack the resilience of one born with nothing, who must live or die by his strength and his wits.”</p><p>“What do you know of my father?” scoffed Hux in incredulity, unable to account for the nightmare-like visions that he beheld, “do you speak of that <em>scoundrel</em>, who led him to waste vast sums on a fool’s quest – passing himself off as a...a conjurer or alchemist, unsatisfied with the coppers thrown to him at market fairs, I resent the day that brought the deceiver to my father’s doorstep”</p><p>“He was no deceiver,” spat Ren, “he was a man beyond his time – it is your family that had cast away his genius and soiled his good name with your own notoriety”</p><p>“It is a name that even his own son is ashamed to bear,” Armitage retorted.</p><p>“How strange it is that our paths should cross, perhaps this is fate granting you an opportunity to make amends for past wrongs,” Ren tried to control himself, afraid of what he might do otherwise.</p><p>“What wrongs do you dare to accuse me of, vermin?”</p><p>“Brendol Hux had taken my father’s invention, his life’s work, and banished him as an imposter and a charlatan before having him poisoned,” Kylo spoke with calculating coldness.</p><p>“There is no invention,” said Hux with a hollow laugh, “or are you such a child as to believe that sensational story? It seems society has progressed little since the Dark Ages, to be so credulous as to believe in those tales of alchemists and infinite stores of gold – if you do not believe me, perhaps you will once you are set to working cleaning every dusty old room of the manor house. Or are you another one of them, a leech eager for a morsel – another poor bastard my father sired, the ‘true’ heir to the family estate.”</p><p>“Yes, I have heard that you are not Lord Hux’s only bastard – but I do not doubt you are worthy of the name”</p><p>“You overstep your bounds”</p><p>“I know no bounds,” said Kylo, “Stop the coach!” he shouted. For a moment Hux was too aghast to contradict him.</p><p>“How dare you! Get out!” he hissed, struggling to keep his composure as he watched Kylo push open the door.</p><p>“I am getting out, and so are you,” Kylo reached his hands under the man’s legs and picked him up in a swoop, jumping out of the open door as the horses were cantering to a halt.</p><p>“Are you bloody well out of your wits!” he thrashed as strong arms tried to restrain him.</p><p>“I am not going to hurt you,” Ren laughed, enjoying the sight of the other’s dishevelled hair and flustered expression as he carried him towards the lake. “Stay there,” he nodded to the footman who was about to hop off to the aid of his master, a baffled look on his face.</p><p>Armitage cursed and fought, subsiding somewhat in his efforts only as he felt himself nearly slip out of the man’s grasp onto a thorn bush through which he was being carried towards a lake.</p><p>“I think that something must be done to cool your temper, sir,” said Ren matter-of-factly. The footman stood frozen like a statue, staring vacantly at the road, as if deaf to his master’s shouts for assistance.</p><p>“I will have that man sacked,” he muttered, and then turning to the Kylo with a look of pleading that reminded him at once of the dark alleyway.</p><p>“Do you see how little it takes to make a beggar out of you?” Kylo held him over the water, feeling Armitage’s fingers dig into him as he tried to hold on.</p><p>“What have you done to my servant?” he scowled. “Why is he standing like a bewitched fool?”</p><p>“Perhaps he has had too much sun,” said Ren, yet the crippled aristocrat was not amused.</p><p>“Put me down immediately!”</p><p>“As you wish, sir”</p><p>“No!” he could feel himself slipping into the icy water, “you know very well what I mean,” he said, this time more feebly.</p><p>“You must say please”</p><p>This was too much for Hux, he would not allow himself to be taunted and made a mockery of. He reached into his vest and pulled out a pistol, pressing it against the other’s chin. But to his surprise, Kylo merely chuckled.</p><p>“Do you think this is amusing? I can have you hanged”</p><p>“I thought your intention was to blow off my head, you must really make up your mind sir”</p><p>“That is quite enough – I rue the day I set eyes on you, this is what one gets for showing kindness to –“</p><p>“Kindness? You? It is I who saved you from the cutthroat and have yet to see compensation”</p><p>“And<em> I</em> have yet to see the honest work which you so nobly spoke of,” Hux retorted, “so far, all that I have beheld is that you are an unmanageable, unhinged, ingrate”</p><p>“Those are brave words coming from one in your precarious position,” chuckled Kylo, unperturbed.</p><p>“You wouldn’t dare,” Hux glared at him, but a certain glittering in the other’s eyes made him lose his assurance.</p><p>He clung helplessly onto Kylo, who walked into the cool water of the pond with determined strides and then plunged with Hux still pressed against him, submerging the both himself and the ginger-haired man</p><p>Hux gasped and choked, spitting out water when at last they came up for air.</p><p>Kylo cradled him in his arms as he looked at him with frightened eyes.</p><p>“W-why,” he breathed as Ren set him down upon the sand.</p><p>As he looked down at Hux, something of the anger which he had felt, and the satisfaction which he expected to feel at seeing the degraded heir of Brendol Hux subsided into guilt, twisting his heart and making him appear despicable. He could not justify what he had done as anything other than cruelty. Something in the other’s consciousness had frightened him, and he had to fight back against it – only not like this.</p><p>“I am sorry sir,” Kylo’s eyes began to well with tears as he sunk to his knees beside Armitage, “please, please forgive me,” he took the other’s hand and bowed his head low, his tears falling upon the pale skin.</p><p>After momentary surprise, Hux withdrew his arm, scrambling clumsily to distance himself from the young man.</p><p>“I will not hurt you again – I promise you,” Kylo swore, holding onto his master’s coat to keep him still.</p><p>“Get away from me,” Hux picked up a nearby stone, clutching it tightly in his trembling hand as if prepared to defend himself. He had no doubt that Ren was not in his right mind and that he had been terribly naive in what he had done. The years he had spent in seclusion within his father’s manor, ever since he had left boarding school, were years spent hiding from society and the relatives who pursued him with litigation cases, making him desperate for human contact and at the same time, fearing it.</p><p>Instead of seeking it among the circles natural to one of his position, he had descended to the company of madmen and overgrown street urchins, who proved just as predatory as those whom he shunned and abhorred. But he had little time to dwell upon the consequences and what had led up to them as Kylo overwhelmed him with his resilient efforts to get him back to the coach.</p><p>The driver, as if coming back to life from a state of petrifaction, urged the horses onwards at a desperate speed. Kylo wanted to get the man to the nearest inn and felt his guilt sink in more deeply, seeing how Hux no longer even protested, from shock or from fear, becoming pathetically malleable to Ren’s ministrations.</p><p>“Please say something,” Kylo knelt at the other’s feet, hoping to convey his penitence, “Armitage,”</p><p>“Do not call me that,” Hux was wrapped in a heavy woolen blanket, his lips a slight tinge of blue. “I want nothing more to do with you, do you understand?”</p><p>“Consider sir, I wish nothing more than to make amends, I know that I –“</p><p> “Once we reach the inn, I have no intention of proceeding further with you. It is past debate or consideration,” said Hux furiously, “your behavior was...was beyond words,” he stammered.</p><p>“Indeed sir,” Kylo rose and sat down opposite to him. The rest of the journey was passed in silence, both men staring out the window to avoid each other’s scrutiny. When at last they reached the inn, Kylo helped him out of the coach and walked him up a staircase to the room he had taken.</p><p>“May I prepare a bath for you sir?” Kylo asked, helping him remove his shoes. Hux had up to that point allowed him to serve out his final hours, not knowing why exactly other than that it was easier than protesting against the insolent creature. Another part of him found himself sinking easily into Kylo’s firm hands, finding a strange comfort in them, even while knowing that the man had so recently betrayed his trust. Hux hated himself for believing in Kylo’s repentance, which permeated ever look, gesture and word since the incident. Only whether Ren was deserving of a second chance was a matter he was less confident about.</p><p>“Where is my footman?” he looked at him with narrowed eyes.</p><p>“I dismissed him, as you had ordered,” said Kylo, carefully undoing his master’s high collar, which gave him an appearance something like a priest.  </p><p>“As... I... had <em>ordered?” </em>Hux looked at him incredulously, drawing away from the Ren’s hand.</p><p>“Yes, when he failed to come to your aid,” Kylo swallowed hard.</p><p>Hux glowered at him, his muscles tense.</p><p>“The bath is ready, sir,” he said softly, looking away.</p><p>“T-thank you,” Hux felt angry and perhaps somewhat frightened. He found himself suddenly at the mercy of this man.</p>
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<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Bring up my luggage from the coach,” said Hux with an authority as uncertain as his voice felt in his throat.</p><p>“Yes, sir,” Kylo inclined his head. He was reluctant to leave Lord H’s presence, yet he knew no way by which he could reasonably refuse the command without undoing the mask of meekness that was to be his chief weapon in lulling the man into a more malleable state.</p><p>Hux watched him leave, like a fox which was aware that the door of its cage had not been securely fastened, and yet, knew better than to venture out before its hour.</p><p>Lord H. listened to the madman’s footsteps before moving towards the adjoining bathroom. Balancing with one hand upon the towel rack, he locked the door and then carefully lowered himself onto the stool by the washbasin. There he set to undressing, all the while straining to listen to the sound of footsteps down the hall. He managed to climb into the large wooden bathtub, the hot water bringing delightful warmth to him at once which he would have relished were it not for the palpitations of his heart. He had left his coat draped over a chair in which was about fifty pounds -- he hoped this would suffice as temptation enough for the vagrant – glad to sacrifice the sum to be free of the pursuit of one who discomposed his conscience with profane thoughts and dark forebodings.</p><p>He sunk deeper into the water, allowing it to soothe him as he continued to listen.</p><p>At last he recognized heavy steps and the thud of something being clumsily lowered onto the floor. The case was locked and so Hux was little troubled by it. From the bathroom window he heard voices, including that of his servant and the innkeeper. His man inquired after him and after ascertaining that he was to be spending the night, bowed his hat and returned to the coach which was to carry his prisoner to the manor house. Hux fought against the urge to call out to him but knew it was too dangerous. With consternation he watched Acabaeus depart, knowing that he would be waiting for him, if ever his master might escaped his own prison.</p><p>“Sir?” Kylo called, softly at first, and then more frantically as he approached the bathroom door and tried the handle, shaking it violently.</p><p>Hux did not respond, feeling unnervingly trapped and vulnerable. Yet it would be foolish not to answer, Armitage sensed that it was beneath his dignity to tremble before vermin and lunatics, and that by wile he would prevail over the brute.</p><p>“Thank you,” Hux answered him, cupping his hands and casting water over his eyes like one who awoke from a nightmare. “You may take a few shillings from the pocket of my coat and get yourself supper,” he shouted through the door.</p><p>“I will wait here for you sir, in case you need my attendance,” replied Kylo, feeling his muscles relax at the sound of the voice. It had been a disturbed thought that had taken hold of him as he shook the door handle, for he imagined with morbid vividness that Lord.H had hanged himself – believing that the emotions which the ruthless creature felt were conducive to such rash and desperate actions as he had seen before at the workhouse, when men were full of helpless wrath and trapped by the misfortunes of fate. There was but one escape.</p><p>Hux scowled, feeling that it would not be easy to get rid of him.</p><p>After some time he pulled himself out of the lukewarm bathwater and dried himself off with the towel, smiling with the mild satisfaction of a prevailing devil as he heard the muffled sound of his coat being pillaged, and somewhat less pleased at the sound of his suitcase unlocking – by luck or persistence the man had managed to find the secret pocket of his coat where he kept his keys, trying them one by one.</p><p>“I have laid out your nightclothes sir and will go downstairs to get dinner for you; I believe the kitchens will be closing soon,” it seemed that Kylo was listening to his movements too, but in any case Hux, was glad that he would be out of the room when he left the bathroom, not wishing to encounter him in a towel and exposing his scrawny and crippled body to plain sight.</p><p>Hux waited for the door to close behind Ren before limping out of the bathroom, relieved to find that no trap or surprise awaited him. His old fashioned linen nightgown lay upon the bed. Armitage sat down on the edge of the blanket and pulled on the garment. It was some time before Kylo returned, giving him the opportunity to inspect his belongings – to his surprise, there was nothing missing, an outcome which left mixed feelings in the pit of his stomach.</p><p>He wondered if this was his chance to report him to the authorities – no, Hux decided, there was a high risk that he would be seen in the hall as he made his way past the inn-side tavern room. With a heavy sigh, he climbed under the blanket and picked up a book, looking at the words but hardly remembering what he read. A part of him entertained the thought that it was perhaps paranoia and nothing more that made him take the young man’s brazen foolery for the marks of a murderous lunatic set upon his life – likely the association had come to him due to the shock and terror that befell him in the London alleyway, all too freshly engraved upon his memory.  </p><p>But then, it was more than that – the man knew his father and had some business to settle.</p><p>What a fool he was to rave about it in a rush of anger; a temperamental man is a poor secret keeper, stripping his heart even in front his enemies, as if it was their due to be forewarned about their inevitable punishment.</p><p>He wanted a share of his fortune like the rest of them, no doubt, but he would get nothing – nothing but misery and ruin. Hux wondered by what means he might best carry out his designs. By playing the credulous fool, surely, only then would Ren let down his guard. He thought him weak and susceptible, very well then, so he would be.</p><p>Only not too soon, these masks must be crafted with care – it would be a slow dance before they sat down at the gambling table, one of them leaving a ruined man.</p><p>Before Hux could make up his mind as to the reasonableness of these plots and their conclusions, he heard Kylo’s lumbering steps as he carried in a large tray of pork cold cuts and potatoes, as well as a large flagon of ale. This heavy fare overmatched Hux’s appetite, especially in his overexcited state which made him think little of food. Nevertheless, he allowed Kylo to set it down upon the small wooden table and help him out of the bed into a chair, draping a quilt over his knees to keep him warm. Hux felt discomfited to be the recipient of such care, assuring himself with the thought that the man’s ulterior motives were compelling his wheedling servitude.</p><p>He would wait until night, when Ren was asleep, he decided.</p><p>“Have you had your dinner?” asked Armitage, dissecting the pork into smaller morsels. </p><p>“No sir, but I am quite alright”</p><p>“I insist that you take this”</p><p>“Oh no sir, I could not possibly,” said Kylo sheepishly as Hux pinned two of the three slices on his fork and dropped them onto an empty saucer which he pushed in front of the man.</p><p>“I insist,” said Hux. “Do not make me repeat myself”</p><p>“Sorry sir,” Kylo looked at him embarrassed, but at last his hunger prevailed and he pushed the food quickly into his mouth, having had nothing to eat since morning.</p><p>Seeing how fast the man had devoured his supper, Hux filled his plate with several potatoes, to which Kylo did not protest, having learned that such niceties merely aggravate his master.</p><p>Kylo poured him a cup of tea from the heavy brass kettle as Hux wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and pushed away the empty plate. They finished the meal with a strawberry cream cake which seemed to bring Hux more pleasure than the principal meal, bringing also a transitory distraction from his Mephistophelean ambitions, an attribute which he unknowingly shared with his servant.</p><p>When it came time for them to retire, Kylo stirred up a fire in the hearth and made himself a bed upon a heavy old rug, laying out his shirt and a towel by way of a pillow. Hux laid down on the solitary bed, reminding himself of how essential it was that he keep awake, a difficult thing given the strenuous day and the long journey. He peered at Kylo in the darkness through half-lidded eyes, observing the man’s broad shoulders and strong arms, as well as his scars and several burn marks, received during his time in the factories.</p><p>Hux waited for what he believed to be several hours before slipping out of bed with as much stealth as he could manage, hoping that his dragging foot or the rustling of his robes would not give him away. However, his efforts fell short of secrecy, for as soon as his hand touched the doorknob, he heard a movement behind him.</p><p>“May I be of assistance, sir?” said a voice, soft and polite, yet strangely menacing in the shadowy stillness of the room. He turned to see Kylo sitting up on the rug and felt like one who had sat vigil over a hearse and beheld that which would make a man’s blood run cold.</p><p>“N-no,” stammered Hux, “I’m fine”</p><p>“Is there something that you need, your lordship?” Kylo rose slowly to his feet.</p><p>“You need not be awake at this hour,” said Armitage, still holding the doorknob.</p><p>“I serve you at all hours, sir, I am your dutiful watchdog,” spoke Ren, and the allusion was not lost upon Armitage, for he felt in that moment as if even his mind was not safe from the man’s intrusions. But surely he was imagining it, or else going mad -- he did not know what to believe. “But indeed it is best if you retired to bed, your lordship, if I may be so bold as to suggest it – the impressions which compel us in the night are often illusions which lead us astray”</p><p>“What nonsense you speak,” scoffed Hux, averting his gaze. “Go back to sleep,” he commanded, thin hands letting the doorknob slip reluctantly from their grasp.</p><p>“Allow me sir,” Ren rose and hurried to the other’s side as he trudged back to his bed, taking Hux’s arm and lowering him onto the mattress, not failing to observe the grimace upon his master’s countenance. With his other hand he massaged Lord H’s back while they walked, as if to soothe him, watching the other’s lip quiver.</p><p>“Were you perhaps sleepwalking?” Kylo ventured to say as he adjusted the pillow.</p><p>“Yes, I was sleepwalking, how fortunate that you were there to stop me – who knows what might have happened,” Hux muttered, unable to keep the tone of sarcasm from his voice.</p><p>“Rest sir, it will do you good,” said Kylo, his expression taking on its characteristic inscrutableness, “and do not fear, I shall be watching over you”</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The coach approached a gray stone building, an ancient manor house which had been built upon and expanded throughout several generations, bearing the marks of each period. As it passed from master to master, a contrast of taste was observed between the grave 13<sup>th</sup> century tower keeps and the pointed gables which distinguished the facade. Nevertheless an essence of unity was precariously managed in the design of the abode, and then left to the wiles of nature, as vines took root and crept up its sides, first among the many signs of charming neglect which Kylo noticed upon his arrival.</p><p>The house was like a fine lady that no longer took pleasure in fine gowns, and went only so far as to keep up the appearance of respectability befitting her station – preferring a retired life after a tumultuous beginning – having borne witness to destruction by cannon and by fire and by the fallibility of human nature. For hundreds of years, Owlcot House had stood perched upon a hill surrounded by ancient woodland, its marble steps overlooking a broad gravel pathway with a row of old hawthorn trees on either side, forming a corridor -- it led to pair of iron gates which the footman hurried to open.</p><p>Kylo looked out at the servants who waited outside to greet Lord H. upon his arrival.</p><p>Amid this small congregation, most prominent was a tall man in a dark overcoat; despite being advanced in years his proud posture and severe brow gave him the appearance of a formidable personage, such that one might have mistook him for the master of the house were it not for his plain dark garments.</p><p>Thin sinewy fingers clasped the handles of a wheelchair which he pushed forward as he approached the coach, offering his hand to the invalid, who took it with a nod of acknowledgement.</p><p>The man’s eyes then fell upon the countenance of Kylo with marked surprise which he was quick to stifle, returning the so-called guest’s naïve grin with a toothy smile of his own.</p><p>They stared at one another overlong until at last Lord H. spoke.</p><p>“This is my physician, Dr. Snoke Acabaeus,” at which introduction the doctor repeated his bow.</p><p>Kylo wondered at such deference being shown to a country laborer and considered whether it was not some kind of joke being made at his expense.</p><p>Nevertheless, he continued to smile, signalling his benignity.</p><p> “Oh no,” the old man protested, “I have long given up my profession, and am a mere idler now among his other servants, ambling about and getting in the way. Lord H. has been so kind as to furnish me with comfortable quarters and so he will have little success in getting rid of me,” he laughed, pushing Lord H’s wheelchair towards the house, taking a route around to the garden.</p><p>“Dr. Acabaeus is a haunting presence,” said Lord H. as Kylo followed after them. “His influence is felt by all the household, in all things. His assistance with various errands is indispensable”</p><p>Ren wondered at this strange remark, which seemed to be directed at him.</p><p> “Bertha, prepare theguestroom for him,” Hux summoned a willowy woman that had been following some paces behind them.</p><p>She inclined her drawn haggard face and timorously took a key from his hand, looking down at it with an expression of unease. Obediently, she bowed to them and then retired into the house through the servants’ door.</p><p>As the unwelcome stranger, Kylo naturally suspected that he was the <em>him</em> of which they spoke but resolved at once that he would allow himself to be led wherever his master chose – having the fearlessness and bravado of one who knew not what he contended against.</p><p> “Ah and you must be Lord H’s savior,” said Acabaeus, placing his long-fingered hand upon Kylo’s shoulder, “It is a gift of the Gods that you had been present”</p><p>Kylo felt revulsion, yet did not recoil from the touch.</p><p>“I mistrust the Gods and all their gifts,” said Armitage, flashing Kylo a look.</p><p>“What auguries of ill omen you speak, your lordship,” the doctor laughed dryly, “you must take heed that they do not hear you”</p><p>“I care little if they hear me,” he smirked, “<em>they</em> know full well that I am surrounded by devils who toil at my secrets and my vices – what I hide, I hide in plain sight”</p><p>“You speak only to be shocking, and shock only to be looked at, your lordship,” the physician grinned, “it is the foible of invalids,” he turned commiserating towards Kylo, who averted his gaze, finding in the man something objectionable which he could not yet name.</p><p>“If I commit such a fault, it is not for being an invalid but because there can be no substance in a conversation between three reprobates” retorted Lord H.</p><p>There was something in Hux’s manner which appeared unnatural to him, both Hux and the old man, as if they were playing an unpleasant game to which he was spectator, with only a tenuous guess at the rules.</p><p>“Would it be commonplace to say that one judges other men by his own character?” said the doctor.</p><p>“Let us say instead that his lordship surrounds himself with kindred spirits” spoke Kylo unexpectedly, who had hitherto walked silently beside them.</p><p>“What kind of spirits are we Mr.Kylo?” asked Acabaeus indulging the audacious young man.</p><p>“I do not know yet, sir. There are some matters which take time to distill to their true essence”</p><p>“We have a chemist among us!” he said in mock delight.</p><p>“Not I sir, as Lord H., I but make a pretense of knowing – having known true greatness and basked in it, but I have long ago withered without its light”</p><p>“What is this light that you speak of?” asked the doctor.</p><p>“Do not encourage him,” interrupted Lord H. “He refers to his father, the charlatan. He has come to preach to us”</p><p>“I have already tasted too much of your generosity, sir,” answered Kylo, bowing to Hux. “And it is useless to preach to those who have grown weary even of the Gods, with their gifts and their punishments. I am here but to till the earth”</p><p>“A chemist and a rhetorician,” chuckled Acabaeus, “it would be a pity to see his virtues wasted, would you not agree your lordship?”</p><p> “He is a gentle angel, come to remind us of the garden of the paradise which had strayed from,” said Lord H. sarcastically, growing weary of their affected banter.</p><p>“No, I reckon he is the serpent!” Acabaeus laughed raucously, “come to stir us idle curs to further iniquity!”</p><p>“You are mistaken sir,” said Kylo, his voice more solemn than either of the two men expected. “For I am as Adam, prepared to come to peril for the sake of knowledge”.</p><p>He looked at Lord H. and held his gaze unwaveringly.</p><p>“And you shall be answered,” said Hux, holding out his hand.</p><p>“Young men learn little from the mistakes of their fathers,” the doctor smiled mirthlessly.</p><p>“I have told you old man, I care not who listens”</p><p>Yet Ren did not clasp his hand, instead, he knelt beside him, pressing it to his lips.</p><p>“Let us retire, Acabaeus. Show our guest to his room,” Armitage pulled his hand away, his face burning.</p><p>The doctor’s brow darkened and then Kylo knew that he and Lord H. had overstepped their bounds.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kylo listened as the door was locked behind him, leaving him to the solitude of his quarters. The chamber was simply furnished, containing a bed, a chair, and a writing desk. Before making a closer inspection, he approached the window, drawing open the heavy curtains. Somehow he felt little surprise at finding that the glass was half-obscured by a thick iron lattice, intricately wrought with winding motifs, and yet clear as to its purpose.</p><p>However, having received Lord H’s vow, he felt no imminent danger within the confines of his prison. Nevertheless, his thoughts were troubled and he lingered for some time at the window, tired but unwilling to seek repose. It was the middle of the night surely and yet he could discern that there was someone wandering in the garden by the faint glow of moonlight.</p><p>A man and a woman. He led her by the arm around the rose bushes, she following him with obedient steps, her veiled shoulders hunched and her arms folded over a bouquet of half-wilted flowers which she stooped to pick with his aid. They took several turns around the garden paths in ambling steps beneath the stars, while Kylo hoped that the wind might stir her veil and show her face to him.</p><p>At first he thought it was Lord H. who led her by the hand, yet by the man’s stature he knew it could not be him. This man was taller and even more angular in his figure – Dr. Acabaeus. At last they retired into the manor house, leaving Kylo’s thoughts to wander after them. But to thought alone he could not leave these apparitions.</p><p>Reaching into his pocket, he drew the key which Lord H. had slipped into his hand after their supper, feeling a pang of remorse that he should so soon betray the other’s trust – yet perhaps these secrets were not those of his lordship, but of the doctor alone, who had no claim upon Ren’s honor.</p><p>Furthermore, perhaps it was Lord H.’s will that he should behold these phantoms.</p><p>He recalled seeing someone watching from a window overlooking the driveway when they first arrived at the manor, certain it was the same woman who had attended upon them at supper – only he doubted that her strong, almost masculine form was in any way akin to that of the stranger of the garden, and yet his mind followed the memory.</p><p>This servant had pallid skin and white hair, as well as the other characteristic distinctions of the albino. She had stood beside Lord H.’s chair like a sentinel throughout the somber meal, from time to time looking at Ren from the corner of her eyes, finding him an as much an object of curiosity as he her.</p><p>The simmering wariness between his servants did not fail to pass the notice of Lord H.</p><p>“This is Phasma, my father claims to have found her as a child among the Amazonian tribes of South America,” said Hux by way of an introduction. “Another one of his fanciful travel tales, who knows if he had ever even reached those shores. According to some accounts, albinos are considered by some tribes to be in possession of magical properties -- especially their tongues, and so it may be his one good deed to have brought her here before the slaughter. She has proven to be a most loyal servant – muteness being more a virtue than a deficiency, by my judgement,” said Hux with a smirk, raising his wine glass to his lips.</p><p>Then, he gestured for her to come closer and spoke something to the woman in a harsh guttural tongue which Kylo did not recognize. The woman’s eyes flashed upon him and he could surmise that they spoke of him. She bowed her head and then withdrew from the room, a slight leer playing upon her lips.</p><p>No, it could not be she that had walked so meekly in the garden, Kylo felt certain, eager to justify his palpitating curiosity.</p><p>He waited in the shadows of the hall, hoping to catch a glimpse of these strangers, whose fascination stirred his fancy. He saw her silhouette and crept slowly and noiselessly through the hall with the studied footsteps of an accomplished thief. It was unfortunate that this very need for secrecy prevented him from discovering the door through which they passed. The corridor was silent, making him consider whether these were truly ghosts or the visions of an over-exhausted mind.</p><p>But no, that could not be, for the floorboards were wet with the rain that had clung to her footsteps.</p><p>Suddenly, he saw a light, emanating from the crack between the floorboards and one of the doors, while the others remained dim. Carefully, he approached it, his heard pounding in his chest.</p><p>Pressing his ear to the wooden barrier between them, he heard the rustling of fabric and a soft murmuring voice, the words of which he could not make out. He thought that it may be a prayer, only as the voice grew louder could he perceive that it was a petition of a more earthly kind. She was arguing with the doctor, in a tongue that was not his own. He believed they spoke Italian and caught but unintelligible snatches of their words. Suddenly their dialogue ceased and he heard footsteps approaching.</p><p>The only thing that separated him from the other figure was the doorway, thought Kylo, such that he could almost feel their breathing. He could see the shadow of their feet between the door.</p><p>It would be futile to run.</p><p>Kylo leaned down slowly and crouched upon the floor, craning his neck to the light, a pressing urge compelling him to see what was in the room, the tense silence half unnerving him.</p><p>He staggered back violently at the sight of another eye staring back at him.</p><p>Kylo heard the man curse and quickly rose to his feet, retracing his steps, looking backwards for a time, but seeing as the door did not open, he briskly proceeded to his own chambers, locking himself in. He heard the grandfather clock in the hall mark the hour – it was two o’clock and he grew fearful that he had missed his summons. </p><p>Then came a knock upon his door and the turning of the handle.</p><p>It was the albino woman. She held a candle to Kylo and gestured silently for him to follow.</p><p>...</p><p>The room was dark and spacious, and in the shadows Kylo could see that the walls were lined with bookcases, while statues and strange machines stood in alcoves, distracting him from making the expected gestures of submissiveness to his master. The chamber contained an imposing four post bed, its mahogany pillars holding a canopy of green and gold brocade. Reclining upon it, covered by heavy blankets, was the thin figure of Lord H., his back propped up against embroidered pillows as he waited with uncharacteristic patience.</p><p>He acknowledged the servant’s presence with a nod, signaling for him to enter, as he poured cream into his tea from a silver tray which rested upon his nightstand, stirring it languidly, his hand slightly trembling.</p><p>“Sit down,” Lord H. commanded.</p><p>Kylo obeyed, pulling a chair closer to the bedside.</p><p>“I have summoned you to make good my promise”</p><p>“May I ask what had compelled you to make this avowal, sir, given our natural antipathy?”</p><p>“I would not have it otherwise than that you and I should reach <em>an understanding</em>,” said Hux.”My intention has always been to anticipate and subdue the machinations of my enemies. Some might consider the use of force, subterfuge, manipulation, bribery, or blackmail to achieve their ends -- forgetting that even among rivals a mutually agreeable compromise may be the path of least resistance. Yes, I intend to tell you what I know of your father – that is what you have come for is it not, Mr. Ren?” he took a sip from the teacup and set it down upon the saucer, holding it out to Kylo.</p><p>“Yes,” he answered, taking the cup from him and setting it down on the nightstand. “And upon what terms would you impart this knowledge to me, your lordship?”</p><p>“I impart it freely and of my own volition,” answered Armitage. “I am aware that this repulses you, to play the servant, albeit, you do it well. Still, I would rather have an honest enemy under my roof than a false companion. I would rather that you ask of me plainly for that which you seek, and see if it may not be granted. You do dishonor to yourself and me by acting false parts”</p><p> “It is not my wish to defraud myself of your friendship, sir, if I may entertain such hopes,” said Kylo. “And yet, you are mistaken in thinking that my station repulses me. After reflection I have considered how ill it would agree with my conscience to take away a man’s worldly comforts, when so little else remains to lighten his burden”</p><p>Hux said nothing, both drawn and repulsed by such cloying words, the sincerity of which he could not trust himself to weigh upon the usual scales by which he passed judgement over men. He felt that Kylo was tampering with his inner workings and it put him on his guard.</p><p>“Why yes – on this island I am king,” said Hux with affected nonchalance. “I may lounge on this preposterous bed and eat bonbons, and forget all worldly care. I dare say you should pity me,” he laughed mirthlessly and Kylo smiled. “But make no reference to conscience,” Lord H. went on, “experience has taught me that it is a malleable thing, and not to be trusted”</p><p>“Then to your loneliness, your vanity, and your pride” said Kylo “to these I shall openly appeal”</p><p>“You will do well thereby. By my terms you shall do so,” said Lord H., amused. ”In truth I despise these ornaments from a decaying age of arrogance -- only an incorrigible egoist could sleep comfortably upon such a bed, is it not so?”</p><p>“A megalomaniac, a narcissist,” added Kylo in agreement. “Would you like me to burn it sir?”</p><p>“At times I can hardly tell by your tone whether you speak in earnest or in jest. Yes, burn it, and the entire house with it,” grinned Lord H. At the same time he felt a strange happiness, finding it cathartic to say the words blithely, which echoed the self-destructive longings suppressed within his breast.</p><p>“But I cannot do so just yet, sir,” said Kylo, placing a hand upon the other’s wrist, “there is still the knowledge which it must impart”</p><p>“It holds no secrets from me, for years I have studied the remnants of the age of our fathers – it was all a game and you are a fool to have believed in it. Yet if you desire to hear of it, I will give you an accurate account”</p><p>“Perhaps with my assistance – perhaps together we may discover more than what we would find alone”</p><p>“An endearing notion,” he said in a mocking tone, and yet, a part of him was touched.  “But let us not delay further the purpose of our meeting tonight. Lay down beside me upon the bed and see if our tale does not lull you to sleep”</p><p>Kylo did as he was told, reclining upon the coverlet where Armitage made room for him, resting his head upon the other’s lap. As Hux spoke, his fingers played with the dark locks of the man’s hair, a secret shiver running through his skin at the tantalizing intimacy which he invited.</p><p>“According to Lord Brendol Hux’s accounts, he had uncovered your father during his travels around Italy,” Armitage began, “at the time he had acquired considerable debts and was searching for ways by which to do away with what remained of his inheritance upon certain investments in the black market. That is to say, he was gambling for resurrection.</p><p>He allied himself with a group of men that I call themselves The Counterfeiters Guild – working towards compiling instructions and designs to produce precious stones so uncannily similar to the genuine that even master jewel-smiths would often be fooled. This was not always the case, but my father is not a man to be discouraged by an element of risk, in fact I hazard that he preferred it.</p><p>Your father was a talented man in this line of work, that much I am willing to admit, and Lord Hux’s prospects took a significant ascent since he arrived at the manor. Your old man made his abilities known to his principal investor as a humble entertainer, dispelling the inevitable boredom of Lady Herondose’s dinner parties by such magical acts as transforming a bowl of fruit into a cluster of rubies, emeralds and sapphires. They clapped and they tittered in approval at what they presumed to be a fine bit of trickery, but only my father’s discerning eye was truly cognisant that something remarkable had taken place. The man’s reluctance to accompany him back to England only further fueled his desire to possess him.</p><p>Lord Hux placed all his bets upon your father, so it seemed, as he sunk more and more money into setting up the ‘’alchemical” laboratory in accordance to your revered sire’s instructions. He marketed the work among an inner circle of like-minded men, presenting himself not only as the sponsor but as the master of ‘The Golden Book’ – a manual which he guarded with his life containing these precious wondrous recipes – whether there was something to be extracted from this obscurified tome of archaic chimeras is to be guessed at by any, although I suspect that this was merely a prop.</p><p>The true knowledge remained with your father, and by neither threat nor bribery would he be convinced to yield it even to his sponsor – and this Lord Hux discovered too late, after having made a fool of himself at an exhibition before the Prince Regent, the Queen, and her council, showcasing just one of his ‘discoveries’ – vying for royal patronage and protection.</p><p>Your father had taken ill and insisted that Lord Hux postpone the demonstration, but his lordship would not listen, resolving to go alone – having seen the work performed a thousand times and assisted in nearly all of the operations. Yet while following the procedures exactly and mixing the quantities with meticulous care, he produced nothing but noxious fumes and disgrace.</p><p>Although the performance amused the Queen, for my father was a theatrical man, upon his return to the manor he was far from the merry mood he was obliged to assume. Your father avoided his questions feebly, as if unable or unwilling to account for the disappointing results – ending these interviews with the recurring assertion that the<em> force</em> which transformed the natural state of the ingredients came from within him and that there was no means by which to transfer or replicate it into another agent; saying further that he regretted the ends to which these sacred energies were put to use, and hoped that what wealth Lord Hux had accumulated by then would suffice for him and his family.</p><p>He wished no further role in the business. My father did not believe this nonsense, nor do I, frankly. It is understandable of course that your father had been greatly taken advantage of as a business partner, likely receiving but a pittance for his labors, and so it was only natural that he should seek another financier – keeping to himself the critical insights of his craft, if his craft was more than that of a stage magician.</p><p>They fought and finally the ‘apprentice’ was banished from his master’s home. For years afterwards Lord Hux worked feverishly in the laboratory, but all came to nothing, and eventually necessity pressed him to swallow his pride and seek to make amends – as orders and creditors called to collect with increasing impatience.</p><p>But your father refused him, nor did he seem to profit by whatever secrets he had kept from Lord Hux, living as a village apothecary’s clerk until consumption overtook him – I am certain that you know more of his doings from that point on than I do.</p><p>As for my father, fortune favored him at last, when a mysterious letter reached him from a man in India who had heard of his work. He was a force to be reckoned with, setting his terms and establishing himself in the manor where the two of them set to work from the notes your sire had left behind.</p><p>These dealings prospered and again my father resumed his position in society, diversifying his investment and making every effort to keep the old man satisfied. I was only a child then but I knew to keep away from him. Despite his wraith-like appearance, his long tangled hair and his dark skin stretched over his face like a cadaver, he outlived my father and left the manor a few days after the funeral, setting fire to the laboratory and their private archives. When the servants had finally managed to put out the flames there was no sign of him, nor did he ever return.</p><p>For many years, I wanted no role in continuing in my father’s work and was glad to be rid of the temptation. Then protests as to the legitimacy of my inheritance accost me from diverse quarters and left me little time to think of anything else. They centered around a particular rumor that I am the son of a red-haired kitchen maid whose body was found at the bottom of the village well. Of course that is ridiculous, to think that <em>my </em>mother would ever take in such a creature as her own, even for the sake of my father’s reputation. Well, are you satisfied with this account?” Hux paused, looking down at the man, whose eyes suddenly opened.</p><p>“I am, thank you your lordship.  After you have rested I would like to ask you further questions, if you would permit me to do so,” said Kylo softly, rubbing the other’s cold hand as if to warm it with his touch.</p><p>“I permit it,” answered Armitage.</p><p>“May I sleep beside you tonight, sir?” he said, catching Lord H. unawares by his proposition and the gentle meekness of his chaste caresses.</p><p>“N-not this night, but another,” said Hux, swallowing. He felt too tired to trust himself to speak, wondering if already he had said too much, having made the impression that he did not clearly repulse the other’s improper advances.</p><p>“You may call for me through the window of the soul and I will come at your bidding,” Kylo pressed his hand before rising from the bed.</p><p>Armitage looked at him with uncertainty, troubled by the acknowledged influence which the other possessed. A part of him longed to call Ren back, but the door closed shut upon him, leaving him alone in the dark chamber. He felt like one of the objects in a collection of curiosities, knowing that he was not his own keeper and that his desires would bring only further suffering. Despite his efforts, Armitage did not doubt that in the end he would succumb.</p><p>He laid down upon the pillow, feeling a numbness in his heart, like tears which would not come.  </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>By the morning’s light, Kylo found the garden overgrown and derelict, although through the wild neglect of weeds, fragrant corcus flowers and nerines pushed their petals through the undergrowth. Kylo worked hard to pull out the roots of rotten and overgrown weeds, tending to the crab apple trees and irrigating the soil. The hours passed by quickly and he paused only to eat his lunch in the company of the old gardener’s wife, a thin mouse-faced woman with gray hair tied in a neat bun. She had a tired sad smile as she walked beside Kylo along the forest paths which neighbored the estate, showing him where to find some wildflowers and herbs which he might begin by transplanting to the garden. She showed him also where he might pick mushrooms to make soup and the groves known to wild deer.</p><p>“How did your husband die, Ms. Rowannick?” Kylo asked as she bent down over a patch of moss.  </p><p>“He was caught poaching on the Lord Pryde’s land, his lordship’s groundskeeper shot him down,” she answered, a look of sadness crossing her face which made Kylo regret the question asked in idle curiosity.</p><p>“I am sorry for your loss madam,” said Ren. “What did Lord H. do when he found out?”</p><p>“He could not do anything,” she sighed, brushing off her apron. “His mother is the wife of Lord Pryde and relations between them are already thinly strained. Her ladyship remarried a few years after her husband’s death and the present Lord Hux was strongly apposed to the match, although Lord Pryde had long been a close friend of his father”</p><p>Ren thought it best not to press further, for the woman seemed strained to talk about the subject.</p><p>In the evenings, Kylo attended upon Lord H., so that he might enjoy the fresh air and survey the man’s progress. He pushed the wheelchair along the garden paths, always taking the same route, which ended at a viewpoint overlooking the rolling hills of farmland which belonged to the lord’s tenants. He imagined that this sight comforted Hux, like an aged regent who gazed across the expanse of a kingdom which he had conquered in days of old, and hoped to keep even in the time of his decline.</p><p>The sun set over the horizon, turning the sky and the fields aglow, as if by the light of some celestial deity descending to greet a favored mortal. Somewhere in the distances, large hills were outlined in purple hues and a light wind swayed the thin stems of faded flowers which stood in urns upon the banister. Kylo gazed at Hux, wondering if he saw these things as he looked out over the view, for his face showed no sign of vivacity, nor a healthy pallor, despite these daily excursions. He seemed to awaken only when Ren touched his shoulder, shuddering slightly as if startled from his thoughts. But he did not turn nor did Kylo speak, both continuing to look at the setting sun until it was time to return to the manor.</p><p>Kylo joined him at the supper table for a repast of plumb duck, which Hux picked at and ate without apparent appetite. Since his arrival at the manor, he felt as if something of the man’s moroseness was permeating into his own spirit, as if a heavy weight was lingering invisibly upon his shoulders, the same weight by which Hux was hunched over. It pained him that the promise of closeness which their distant meeting had awakened had failed to bloom, crushed by the man’s vague fears to relinquish power become dependent upon another. Trust did not come easy to him, despite his touch starved loneliness, and Kylo could feel at times how he struggled within his breast to suppress these desires to seek comfort in his servant’s arms.  </p><p>Kylo would read out loud to him until he would fall asleep, valiant tales by Sir Walter Scott and books of poetry upon themes of wilderness, shipwreck and war. He enjoyed stories of unrequited love, like that of Beatrice and Dante Alighieri, and Paradise Lost, to soothe his fading ambitions, Dostoyevsky for a slow descent into madness, and children’s tales, when he had oversaturated himself with the wickedness of human nature. And then again he would turn to Oscar Wilde and Marcus Aurelius for diverse company. So the days passed in quiet company and wholesome labor, such that at times Kylo would forget the true purpose which had carried him to the manor house.</p><p>On Sundays, he spent most of the day out of doors with the cook, Finn. He was a dark-skinned man close to his age in years and of an amiable temperament. Kylo had asked him if he too had been brought back by the late Lord Hux from some distant land, for he had such eccentricities as always having his neck covered by a cravat even while swimming in the lake where they so often went to fish. Finn laughed at this remark but never gave him an answer, saying that he could hardly remember anywhere other than the manor and its neighbouring grounds.</p><p> “Does Lord H. get many visitors?” asked Kylo as they sat on the dock in the early morning, watching the still waters and the thin thread of their fishing lines.</p><p>“Mainly from the railway developers,” the man replied, “at first he was raving that they were going to build the tracks through his land but after some persuading he warmed up to them I suppose and now he has a considerable share in the project. He thinks it is a grand speculation and is even involved in building out the new towns that are supposed to arise along some of the stops. I guess we’ll see what comes of it all soon enough,” chuckled Finn.</p><p>“Any other visitors? I mean...social calls”</p><p>“It has been a while,” said Finn after some thought, staring calmly at the silhouette of distant marshland, “a few years ago the old dowager, Lady Foreston wanted to marry her eldest granddaughter off and thought that Lord H. would do. She was a lively decent looking girl, Miss Rey. She would be brought here every few weeks to play the pianoforte for him, although from what I managed to catch, the conversation between them was somewhat stiff. He seemed more like her tutor than her paramour. And she had a bit of a temper from what I know, one time I was told that she swiped the music sheets onto the floor and stormed off calling him an intolerable git. It was probably at Lady Foreston’s bidding that she sent a note of apology afterwards”</p><p>“I can imagine,” Kylo smiled sheepishly.</p><p>“It is hard to say if she ever warmed up to him, but it was a passable match and it seemed that both sides were willing to go through with it,” Finn went on, “except when rumors started going about that she was with child”</p><p>“<em>His</em> child?” Ren looked at him incredulously.</p><p> “At first they thought it belonged to Lord H. but apparently not for he called the whole thing off as soon as the doctor examined her,” said Finn. “When the news came out, Lord Dameron was gentleman enough to marry her – they had travelled around the continent months ago with a group of his friends from Yale and some of their lady friends with their chaperones – if there was something between them they were very discreet about it all. It came to a shock even to Lady Foreston. But given that Lord Dameron had a sizeable fortune, the old dragon was soon appeased and in the end it was Lord H who was left with most of the ridicule. It was strange though, after the marriage the two of them started off well enough but soon grew cold, they hardly hide the fact even in public. It’s a wonder that they haven’t parted ways, but that is about all I know of the kitchen gossip,” he reeled in the fishing line and cast it out further into the pond.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p>Once a month Lord H. would take a coach in the company of his physician, returning only on the following morning. Kylo had wondered for some time as to the nature of these excursions, for none of the other servants whom he dared to ask were communicative upon the subject. He did not know whether it was only curiosity or a sincere hope of discovering something of value that made him do it, yet he was persistent in his efforts towards compelling Lord H. to reveal the nature of these journeys. He sensed that to ask directly would arouse suspicion, and so other means were necessary.</p><p>Every morning he would attempt to catch the other’s eye, resorting to such petty means as the shattering of a teacup or knocking his foot against the table, and once his gaze was ensnared, he would seek to exert his influence upon him, winding him in the strange hypnotic spells in which he was growing increasingly proficient. In equal measure, Lord H. seemed to have grown wary of his presence, whether consciously or not, he was aware of how certain actions would be committed with little recollection of a plausible motive, and more severely striking to his conscience – acts committed in direct opposition to his personal interests.</p><p>The doctor seemed to have grown suspicious as well, thought Kylo. While Lord H. endeavored to avoid him, the old man desired to challenge him. At times he would catch the physician staring at him with focused concentration, a powerful force within him pushing back against Kylo’s energy, warping it, directing it – in such ways as the young man grew fearful. He felt that there was little to be gained by these trails, and much to be lost, if he were to allow the other to carve out a part of him to place under his own influence, or glimpse his intents.</p><p>All of these battles of will that were fought across the breakfast table were slowly wearing down each of the three men, who wondered which of them would be the first to submit.  </p><p>...</p><p>Kylo held Armitage’s wrist as he put the silver cufflinks in, adjusting the sleeve to reveal the whiteness of the man’s skin. Kylo could see Lord H. watching him in the refection of the mirror as the ticking of the old grandfather clock appeared to him like the sound of a heartbeat. He leaned closer and bowed his head, pressing his lips to the soft skin. He heard a breath and felt as the fingers of the hand tremble as he continued to hold it. Kylo set it down upon the other’s lap, limp like a doll’s while the man continue to sit rigidly in the chair before the dark glass.</p><p>Ren picked up a comb and began to run it through Lord H’s smooth hair, observing a strange expression upon the other’s face, his downcast eyes seeming to look at the polished surface of the table. There was something sickly and sorrowful about Armitage, like the beauty of a decaying swan. Kylo set down the comb carefully, afraid to make a sound lest it should dispel the sacred trance, by an unnatural impulse, his fingertips followed the contours of Hux’s collarbone, then up to his smooth white neck. He breathed in his scent as he kissed it, close to the ear, admiring every curve and contour of the man’s profile.</p><p>An aristocratic elegance intermingled with the fallibility of his nature – cowardice, vindictiveness, suspicion, and half-subdued lust. All of these things he could feel as his hand pressed against the other’s chest. Armitage placed his own hand over Ren’s, either to tear it away or hold it there, his heart wavering.</p><p>The man turned to him slowly, daring to look into Kylo’s eyes, his lips slightly parting. Ren felt a tantalizing attraction to kiss him but he knew that this would frighten him, bringing Armitage into the realization that he had transgressed, crossing the imaginary line of his puritan convictions, his avowed abhorrence to physicality. His soul was suspended half-aware of his own treachery, the carnal desires which stirred convulsions of longing in his stomach drawing Ren ever closer to him, while never allowing himself to be caught.  </p><p>“We must be leaving soon,” said Armitage, his voice hoarse. “Bring me my coat”</p><p>“Yes sir,” Kylo could not hide the disappointment, the reproach, which spoke through his eyes.</p><p>He helped him down the steps of the staircase and into the carriage. They were to join a hunting party, as spectators, and he knew that Lord H. would feel himself out of place amid the women, children and pensioners who waited upon the lawn, chattering and taking refreshments. Kylo could imagine him, sitting with his book under a canopy, frustrated by the noise, and yet feeling that it was his duty to make an appearance lest he be completely forgotten – a notion which he took to with ambivalence.</p><p>“I would like you to take part,” Lord H. said suddenly, as the horses trotted to a stop nearby a white pavilion.</p><p>“S-sorry sir?”</p><p>“Can you shoot and sit upon a horse?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Madam, may I help you to your coach?” Kylo approached a woman with hazel eyes and a broad-rimmed hat adorned with violets. “I see that your husband is occupied with his hounds,” he gestured to Lord Dameron, who stood smoking under a canopy with a group of other hunters, their dogs drying their hides with their rough tongues and tearing their teeth into their allotted portions of the game.</p><p>“Thank you,” she accepted his proposal as he held the parasol over her head, somewhat too small to cover the both of them from the onslaught of rain.</p><p>Kylo took the opportunity to admire her, breathing in the faint perfume of lilac which still lingered upon her skin.  Yet as his eyes followed the curve of her neck he noticed something startling: a deep scar could be traced from the contour of her ear, running down along her jaw. This scar had been concealed by artifice, Kylo believed, matching the color of her skin to obscure the injury – only what kind of injury had this been, he could not conjecture.</p><p>“Excuse me madam, but I wonder –“</p><p>“Thank you, please send my regards to Lord Hux,” before he could finish his sentence he could tell that she had noticed him studying her, snatching the parasol from him with an unabashed roughness. She pushed past him and stepped into the carriage, looking ill at ease and eager to leave. The footman closed the door behind her, murmuring words of condolence with regards to the rain.</p><p>Kylo turned to leave, feeling surprised and frustrated with the woman – but then, he realized, he had caught upon something. Suddenly he heard someone calling and turned to see the lady’s footman running after him. </p><p>Ren paused and allowed the man to catch his breath before handing him a note.</p><p>He opened it and read – a page torn from a book.</p><p>
  <em>Something found and something lost,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The woodland still before the frost,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The birds are silent in the trees,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And you too, soon, shall be as these.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Gaze not into the maiden’s well,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Avoid the brooklet cold and sweet,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Heed not the fox’s call.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>From learned men, </em>
</p><p>
  <em>If I knew then,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>How church bells keep on tolling,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Along the hill, </em>
</p><p>
  <em>I would walk still</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Poppy seeds a-sowing,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>One by one, the red blooms grow,</em>
</p><p>
  <em> Upon the fields of mourning.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>May the wind blow,</em>
</p><p>
  <em> And scatter far,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The maiden’s words of warning.</em>
</p><p>“How long must I wait for you," said Armitage as Kylo joined him inside the coach. However, there was little displeasure in his voice, for Kylo had done well in the hunt. "What is it?" he asked, observing that the man was distracted by thoughts of his own. </p><p>“Nothing sir, I am tried perhaps," Kylo forced a smile. </p><p>“Yes, well, I am sure you will have a good appetite for supper, we will have a special feast prepared in your honor" </p><p>“A most splendid idea," grinned Dr.Acabaeus. </p><p>...</p><p>Kylo returned to his room and from under the floorboard drew out a folio in which was a poem carefully preserved in a golden frame, the paper thin and aged like the wing of a moth. This he had stolen from the cabinet of Lord H. while he slept soundly by the fireside. He returned to it, his eyes visiting again his father’s initials upon the back, holding it beside the poem from Lady Rey.</p><p>
  <em>Brook, to what river dost thou go?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>O my brooklet cool and sweet !</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I go to the river there below</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Where in bunches the violets grow,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And sun and shadow meet.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Brook, to what garden dost though go?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>O my brooklet cool and sweet!</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I go to the garden in the vale</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Where all night long the nightingale</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Her love-song doth repeat.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Brook, to what fountain dost though go</em>
</p><p>
  <em>O my brooklet cool and sweet !</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I go to the fountain at whose brink</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The maid that loves thee come to drink,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And whenever she looks therein,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I rise to meet her.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Note: The poem is an Armenian song from the Prose Version of Alishan <em>‘The Boy and the Brook’</em></p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As the autumn days passed into winter, Kylo felt a restlessness in his spirit, a longing to see more of the countryside, or at the very least, to get away from the manor house and its oppressing atmosphere, which seemed to be as one with the consciousness of its master. Hux appeared to have little time for him, hardly leaving the chamber in which he would lock himself away for hours. Even at the breakfast table, Kylo found that the man rarely spoke, whether it was due to some fault of his own or due to the stifling presence of the doctor, he could not tell.</p><p>“Your lordship, I believe that your horses may be in need of the fresh air – they grow restless in their stables since our journey,” said Kylo with measured words.</p><p>“Take them through the arboretum then,” said Hux over the morning newspaper. Kylo observed that he scanned it from cover to cover, as if looking for something, taking particular care only over the obituaries and the commerce pages, especially those dealing with the rail lines.</p><p>“Thank you, sir,” Kylo was pleased that his request was met with little difficulty. He waited until Lord H. finished his breakfast before departing for the stables.</p><p>He chose the same horse which he had ridden when he had joined the hunting party, a gray dappled creature with an vigorous yet manageable temperament. Kylo adjusted the saddle and climbed onto its back, taking some time to decide the route which he would take. Except for a few excursions with Finn to the lakeside, as well as the occasional foraging into the woods in search of plants, he felt that he had seen little of the grounds – constrained by the idea that he should not wander far lest it should displease Lord H. to find him absent for too long, in neglect of his duties.</p><p>It was liberating to feel the wind through his hair and the speed of the horse as it made its way further and further from the manor house.</p><p>He did not know how much time had passed, realizing only as the sun was starting to set that it was likely many hours since he had departed and that his absence would be noticeable. He had allowed the horse to choose its own path through the forest, happy to let it wander freely after being cooped up in the stables, feeling a natural sympathy with the beast. However, when at last he resolved to return, he had difficulty navigating his way back, the pines taking on a uniformity of appearance, leaving Kylo wondering if he had gone in a circle. The horse seemed to sense his unease and at times would take the lead in trying to find their way out.</p><p>Suddenly, Kylo heard the sound of a rustling and the trotting of a horse’s hooves slowing down behind him.</p><p>“You must be Lord Hux’s servant,” the man’s black stallion came to a halt alongside Kylo. He pulled at the rein of his horse, which seemed to wish for them to continue on their way, disregarding the gentleman’s greeting. Yet the stranger seemed not to mind, instead, he took the lead as his own steed went on ahead of them.</p><p>“Yes, sir,” Kylo answered, matching the other’s pace.</p><p>“You have certainly come a long way” the man remarked.</p><p>“I have lost my way sir…”</p><p>“I am Lord Pryde”</p><p>“Your lordship,” Kylo bowed his head in salutation.</p><p>“I presumed as much, seeing how careless Lord Hux is with his gardeners,” smirked Lord Pryde, adjusting the strap of his hunting rifle.</p><p>“Am I to meet the same fate, sir?” Kylo returned the smile callously.</p><p>“Undoubtedly you shall -- although you are mistaken if you think it is<em> I</em> who shall be your undoing,” he smirked.</p><p>“You are not the first who has given me vague warnings,” replied Ren, “I confess, I hardly know what to do with them”</p><p>“Then you are a foolish young man”</p><p>“Which way is one to run to if he does not know <em>what</em> he is running from?” said Kylo, “I would feel that I would be not only a fool, but also a coward, if I left my comfortable position as Lord H’s servant. It is quite possible that those who give warning underestimate my abilities“</p><p>“You have quite a high opinion of yourself, Mr. Ren,” he smirked, “and what are these abilities that you speak of?”</p><p>“Surely you have heard of my father”</p><p>“He continues to be a topic of interest in these quiet parts,” Pryde’s eyes flashed.</p><p>“Will your lordship not illuminate these mysteries which others only hint at?” asked Ren.</p><p>“Alas, my silence has been bought. But then, I have long felt that I had set my price too low,” he raised his rifle and shot at something in the distance. “For you I shall make an exception”</p><p>“And why is that sir?”</p><p>They followed the course of the bullet to a patch of grass stained with the blood of a fox, and a pace further, the creature itself cowering against the stump of a tree. Lord Pryde raised the weapon again and shot the wounded creature dead, snatching it up and placing it into a large satchel at the horse’s side.</p><p>“Because I would like for you to bring a message to Lord Hux, and most importantly, to the good doctor,” he said pointedly, “that I have grown weary of being his secret keeper and that our contract has expired”</p><p>“I shall carry back your message, your lordship,” answered Ren.</p><p>They came to the edge of the woods, the dark sky streaked with red, the remnants of the setting sun.</p><p>Below them was a broad path leading up to a manor, not that of Lord H, but another equally imposing building in a Dutch style. This he presumed was Pryde’s estate.</p><p>“Then I shall have you for dinner,” laughed the man, whipping the stallion onwards towards the abode.</p><p>Kylo had his horse follow, yet not quite managing to outpace him.</p><p>A butler took their coats and boots and led them to the dining room where a sumptuous dinner was soon set before them along with a bottle of chardonnay. Kylo cut into the rare stake with appetite after being out of doors for most of the day, a part of him remembering how unthinkable such a thing would have seemed to him not so long ago in his days of drudgery. </p><p>“I had seen you talking to Lady Dameron, what impression did you make of her? A fine woman isn’t she” Pryde remarked with a casual air.</p><p>“It is not the place of a servant to discuss her ladyship,” answered Kylo, “but at your bidding sir, I must agree with you”</p><p>“How tactful you are,” sneered Lord Pryde, somewhat annoyed to find the man upon his defenses.</p><p>“Are you fond of carnivals Mr. Ren?” he seemed to change the subject, carving away a slice of meat.</p><p>“I have never been to a carnival, sir”</p><p>“How unfortunate, some might find them sordid, yes, but there are certain acts worth seeing,” said Pryde, “at times they feature curious abominations which one rarely sees elsewhere”  </p><p>“I do not know if I particularly care for abominations,” Kylo answered candidly.</p><p>“I reckon that you will,” he smiled suggestively.</p><p>“Thank you for this fine dinner sir,” the young man set down his fork and knife, wiping his mouth.</p><p>“Now that you have had your dinner, are you ready for the show?”</p><p>“Certainly, your lordship,” Kylo chuckled, rising from his seat.</p><p>“Follow me then,” Lord Pryde took his wine glass and led him down a hallway into a billiard room where in one corner stood a heavy iron chest of a medieval make. He pressed down upon what appeared to be decorative panels, touching them as if he were entering some kind of code. Then he heard the sound of a mechanism opening.</p><p>He opened it and laid out an old newspaper upon the billiard table, surrounded by several postcards.</p><p>Their subject was a carnival troop, or so Kylo presumed, going by the name of ‘<em>The Wonders of the Magi’</em>.</p><p>Then, under the scrutiny of Lord Pryde, he turned his gaze to the postcards.</p><p><em>The Cold Blooded One</em>, read a caption in a curling font, the photo depicting a dark skinned man with fish’s gills upon his neck. Kylo recognized him as Lord H’s cook, Finn.</p><p><em>The Beast Woman</em>, a woman covered from hair to foot with hair, holding hands with <em>The Albino</em>. Both of them had a melancholy, startled appearance as they looked into the camera.</p><p><em>The Magus</em>, Hypnotist, Sage, and Master of the Occult Sciences, in subscript – standing at the center in the newspaper cutting, and amplified in size upon the postcard. There he stood, a somewhat younger Dr. Acabaeus in a gaudy robe resembling a sorcerer in a half-penny theater.  At his feet sat a woman with long ginger hair wearing a white dress of a nearly transparent fabric, her head bowed down and her legs positioned in apparent embarrassment, as if wishing to hide herself from the photographer. Her caption read, <em>The Hermaphrodite</em>. This figure, like the others, he could not help but recognize.</p><p>Kylo stared for a long time at these images, forgetting the presence of Lord Pryde.</p><p>The latter lit a cigar and sat down in an armchair behind him, waiting for his guest to speak.</p><p> “Our friend Dr. Snoke Acabaeus was once a renowned surgeon, until he got himself into some difficulties,” said Pryde at last, growing weary with the other’s silence. “His peers called him an immoral man. But I do not care to comment on philosophical matters such as morality. He was certainly eccentric in the types of procedures which he sought to undertake – that much I will say, making monsters out of men, to see if it could be done. He had a twisted sort of imagination,” he laughed mirthlessly, “although this one is strangely tantalizing, what do <em>you</em> think?” Lord Pryde got up and approached the table, picking up a postcard which showed an erotic close up of the bruised thighs of one that was neither entirely man nor woman.</p><p>Suddenly, Lord Pryde felt a force grip him around his neck, its hold tightening until his breathing became agonized and the room around him grew dark. Kylo ran, pushing aside the footman and leaving without his coat as he climbed onto the horse, tears streaming from his eyes. He knew not where he was going, burying his face into the horse’s mane as it raced onward through the dark woods.</p><p>…</p><p>“Where have you been?” asked Hux. “You are late”</p><p>“I had met Lord Pryde in the forest”</p><p>“Surely not in <em>my</em> woods” his lip twitched.</p><p>“N-no sir, I had wandered too far and –“</p><p>“I see,” he interrupted, not caring to hear whatever excuse his servant was in the middle of conjuring. “Well you are lucky that you were not shot dead,” said Armitage, returning to the letter which he was writing to his solicitor.</p><p>“He had told me some interesting things,” Kylo began, approaching the desk.</p><p>“Really,” Hux set down his quill. “What<em> things</em>?” he could feel something of a threat in the other’s voice which displeased him.</p><p> “Remarkable and unpleasant things,” he murmured, softening his tone, “I knew that I could not truly believe them, at least not until I asked you, sir”</p><p>“Ask then,” snapped Hux, “I do not enjoy these preambles,” he crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair.</p><p>“Have you heard of <em>The Wonders of the Magi</em>?” and he drew from his pocket the folded piece of newspaper.</p><p>Armitage nearly stumbled onto the floor as he reached out to snatch the paper from his hand, unfolding it upon the desk.</p><p>“What does it mean sir?” asked Kylo.</p><p>“It means, my mother was ashamed of giving birth to a deformed inferior creature and tried to get rid of me, quietly, or so she had thought,” Hux looked away, wondering if he ought to have simply sent the man out and given himself time to deliberate. “I…I suppose there are some who had made the connection,” he felt no choice but to continue, “but it does not matter. I am still the legitimate heir of Lord Hux,” Armitage said with increased vehemence, speaking as if to reassure himself as much as Ren, a nervous breathlessness in his voice.</p><p>“Is it true, about your... physician”</p><p>“Yes, he is the wondrous ‘Magi’ himself,” Hux smirked bitterly as he crushed the newspaper and cast it into the flames before Kylo could take it from his hands. “And we, his troop of misfits and monsters”</p><p>“What did he do to you?”</p><p>“Did I not tell you that I was born as ---“</p><p>“You told me, and yet I believe that you have spoken a lie,” Kylo stopped him.</p><p>“How dare you!” yet even as he prepared to defend himself, a part of him waivered. Indeed his memory of his past had always felt strangely inaccessible. As if, whenever he endeavoured to recollect his childhood or even his youth, other memories would superimpose themselves, drawing him away from what he reached towards, leaving him uncertain which was the true and which the imagined life.</p><p>“We start by deceiving others, and end by deceiving ourselves, is that your case your lordship?” Kylo could feel him struggling, wondering how it could be possible that the man had been able to block the notion that he was the subject of hypnosis, or a similar force, acting upon his mind to suppress the true and bring forth the false.</p><p>“You are a puppet, sir,” Kylo went on, taking a step closer. Hux recoiled from him in his chair, feeling trapped. Ren saw the other’s hand tighten around a letter opener and laughed at the notion, further driving Hux’s fury and fear. “What did he do to you?” he whispered, and then remembered himself. It was not his purpose to intimidate the man, and he had lost sight of that in the moment when he beheld the other’s arrogant self-entitled manner. Underneath it all, Armitage was nothing more than a trembling creature, Kylo reminded himself.</p><p>“Is it not obvious? He mutilated me,” said Armitage with constrained anger, struggling to keep back his emotions. A pained look crossed his face, then more than ever, he wished to get out of the room.</p><p>Kylo reached out to him and tried to clasp him in his arms but Hux pushed him away.</p><p>“Do not touch me, you filthy ingrate – conspiring with that bastard, and you have the audacity to return to my house! And – and -- ” Hux cringed from the other’s hand, the feeling of repulsion with his own body and the humiliation which was to come overwhelmed him with impotent wrath. And yet, even then, he did not strike at the servant whose power was greater than his own.</p><p>“Is that why you are afraid?” whispered Kylo, taking a step back and sitting down at the foot of the other’s chair.</p><p>‘Leave me, at once,” snapped Lord H., accidentally overturning the inkpot.</p><p>“Please sir,” Kylo reached down to pick it up but then let it go, instead wrapping his arms around Hux’s legs, burying his face against the fabric. “Please, do not push me away – there is no need. The shame is his, and his will be the punishment”</p><p>His stomach churned and for a moment Armitage seemed about to touch Kylo’s cheek, yet that moment’s pang as quickly vanished, replaced again by fury.</p><p>“Let go of me,” he hissed, kicking his leg roughly to get free of the other’s grasp.</p><p>Kylo felt that he could do little for him, not while Hux’s defenses were roused. Reluctantly, he got up and walked slowly towards the door, closing it behind himself without looking back at the other man.</p><p>Hux sat paralyzed in the chair, his chest heaving and his hand clasped to his mouth in horror.</p><p>
  <em>He knows. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>He knows. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>He knows everything. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> No, not everything, not yet.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>God protect me.</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The nights that followed were restless and full of foreboding for Armitage, who lay in his bed rifling through images of the past and summoning grave visions of the future to come as he tried to choose his next course of action, resolving in the end to keep silent, fearing that Dr.Acabaeus would not suffer Ren to remain longer in the house with the knowledge that he held. Yet in dread would he be left to await Lord Pryde’s next maneuver against him, expecting that very morning that some fateful message would arrive for him with the post.</p><p>Since Armitage’s last encounter with Kylo Ren, it was as though a barrier of influence had been lifted. He remembered in snatches how Dr.Acabaeus first led him to his apartment, where for many nights a boy around his age would wail until his cries grew hoarse. The child never left its bed, and he remembered its gaunt face and ginger hair.</p><p>Then, one night, the cries stopped. Armitage never asked about him, afraid that if he did, the boy might return, and the wholesome food and clean clothing which he was given would be taken away, that he would be cast out, in favor of the other.</p><p>The boy never did return, and at times, a man and a woman would come to visit the apartment, usually at night. They were both well dressed and the woman always smelled like perfume, he remembered her opal pendant and her bright green eyes as she fondled him. There was often something sorrowful in her eyes which he did not understand. She was his godmother, she said. The man usually waited in the hall, smoking a cigarette. One day he came for Armitage on his own and he was taken to boarding school. For some years he saw neither Dr. Acabaeus nor his god parents.  </p><p>He worked feverishly at his studies, believing that if he excelled in his examinations and filled his mind with haphazard knowledge, consumed voraciously from every book he could get his hands on, then his guardians would hear of it and take him away proudly. Dr. Acabaeus had generally been kind with him and provided for all his needs, and yet Armitage never felt quite at ease in the man’s presence, nor did he like it when he brought the others – strange deformed children, feral in habit or despondent in mind.</p><p>He did not wish to count them as his peers, fearing that there was something horribly wrong with himself too, something which he was too blind to see. At times he would sit upon Dr.Acabaeus’s lap and look through books on anatomy, turning the pages slowly, listening quietly as the doctor lectured on matters which the boy half-understood. At times his mind would drift off from the jargon and focus only on the pictures, which he found unpleasant yet intricately fascinating. It was many weeks into the heavy volume that he began to have some inkling of the nature of his own malformation, indeed, the way in which the doctor’s eyes looked at him as he spoke seemed to confirm his suspicions that a reaction was meant to take place, where tendons and irises were passed over with monotonous pedantic dictation. </p><p>Therefore, when his last term at boarding school came to an end, Armitage was relieved to see that it was his godfather’s coach that awaited him. He had made few friends at school, none that would remember him save for his usefulness, and so he went timidly to the coach without asking to make his goodbyes. His godfather pulled him inside and the horses went off towards the city. They dined at a hotel and Armitage watched the man’s ginger mustache as he chewed, picking at the fish which was set before him, its large vacant eye gazing at him with silent reproach. The boy knew that he must make a favorable impression, that his mute docility would not do. The man had something on his mind, clearly, but he could not guess at it. He waited for some clue, a hint that would tell him what he ought to do.</p><p>Contrary to his fears however, after a prolonged silence, his godfather praised him curtly on his accomplishments and then told him that he would be spending the summer with him and his wife in the countryside -- that she wanted to spend time with him. An almost suffocating happiness welled up in his heart, unable to believe the dreamlike fortune that awaited him, relieved most of all to be free from returning to the doctor’s apartment and rotting amid his company of misfits. Armitage felt that all depended upon him keeping secret his own deformity, for surely if they knew they would send him away.</p><p>For the most part he was left alone, for Lady Hux was much occupied with appointments in London, and the boy observed that packages would often arrive in the morning containing shimmering ball gowns, hats, and the like which her maids would unpack and take to her room. The servants treated him with kind deference and he began to feel like the young master which he had always longed to be. During the daytime he would be left to his own devices, and so he spent his time exploring the extensive old library and wandering in the arboretum alone with one of the Labrador pups given to him by a tenant farmer of his godfather. He hoped the summer would never end.</p><p>One night, he heard his godparents arguing. He strained to listen but could hardly make out the words, occasionally catching his name in snatches. Armitage did not see them at breakfast that morning, nor on the following day. There had been talk of sending him to Oxford or Cambridge, and he wondered if this was matter of contention, however, it was upon a different subject that his godfather summoned him to his room.</p><p>He saw that his godmother was there too sitting on a sofa, her eyes red and swollen from tears, his godfather’s face stern and unyielding. Without ceremony or greeting, he told Armitage to undress. At first he thought that he had misunderstood, but that was not the case. He did not know how he could do it in front of his godmother, and yet, he felt he had no choice. Slowly he undid his belt, as if waiting for the command to stop, but it did not come.</p><p>Lord Hux looked at him with an inscrutable expression, perhaps shame, perhaps revulsion, while his wife broke out in sobs hiding her face with her handkerchief before leaving the room. Armitage was told to dress, his father dismissing him as he lit another cigarette.</p><p>After a week, he was sent to London, where Dr. Acabaeus met him at the coach station. An impulse told him to run, but he did not rouse his courage and resolve quickly enough and soon found himself being led down the familiar cobblestone roads the dim musty apartment, where he was met with familiar faces and new ones, all as hostile and miserable as in the images which haunted him. Only something <em>had </em>changed, he felt out of place among them, in his clean suit and polished shoes, his hair smoothly parted, the summer air of the countryside still lingering within his soul. Their jealousy was unabashed and yet they dared not strike against him, sensing by the doctor’s manner that he was not quite as they, but on a pedestal slightly above. Armitage, his prize pupil.</p><p>The youth did not expect to see his godparents again, and so it was with great surprise that he was summoned. If only he knew then where he was to be taken, he wondered if he would not have ran away from both of his so-called guardians. It was then that Lord Hux took him to the brothel, explaining to him the secret which had long been kept from him – his mother’s wavering attachment to a sickly malformed son. Neither of them had expected him to survive, given his grave condition, so that when they sent him away they imagined that it would be for the last time. And yet, by Dr. Acabaeus’s talents, he had been restored. While his mind was not entirely made up, Lord Hux was willing to entertain the possibility of welcoming him back as his heir, if it could be settled that Armitage would be able to continue the family line. After his mother’s difficult pregnancy, the doctors had told her that she would be unable to bear children again, and so, they were left with <em>him. </em></p><p>Armitage was too shocked by these revelations that he hardly knew whether it was perhaps some kind of cruel joke, yet the part of him which longed for a family and for the comforts of his father’s position. These yearnings soon caused him to yield himself to the man’s plans, hardly comprehending what was in store for him.</p><p>The lurid scenes which took place next he, with the doctor’s aid, were suppressed in Hux’s memory, yet he could not forget how he had attempted to run away, how Dr. Acabaeus’s boarders were sent in chase after him, searching the city for him, night and day like a pack of bloodhounds. When at last he was captured and taken to his father, it was made certain that he would not escape him again, and further adding to his punishment, Lord Hux consented that Dr.Acabaeus should complete the procedure which he had intended for his son, unworthy of manhood. And so he shaped his organs. To those of man, which was stunted and malformed, he added an entrance, as that of woman.</p><p>For weeks Armitage lay bedridden, both from the surgery and the crushing of his leg, until at last the day came when Dr.Acabaeus had to flee the city – taking his boarders with him. It was then that he assumed the title of <em>The Magus of Wonders</em>. Acabaeus comforted and sympathized with him for the cruelty he endured by his father, who himself had crippled the son that he cast away from his golden wing. An unnatural father he had been, the doctor repeated as he pressed Hux to drink healing cordials. And as he drank the bitter draft under the other’s ever-watchful scrutiny, his mind felt clouded, not knowing whether it was accident or monstrous brutality that had caused his injury, and if that summer had been real or imagined, if Lord Hux had been real or imagined.</p><p>How close he had come, reflected Armitage in his abject misery as the doctor left his bedside, to having his father’s fortune – he, an imposter.</p><p>For he realized then that the ginger-haired child which Acabaeus had cared for until his death was the true Master Hux, and he – he was no one. To Dr. Acabaeus he owed everything, his rise and fall, his fortune and misfortune, his body and his mind. There was no memory, no thought, which he felt was truly his own unaltered strand, free from the other’s powers of suggestion and manipulation, and something else that was not entirely natural. It was the same sort of power which he believed Kylo Ren possessed, only whether in lesser or greater proportion, he could not say. It was then that he traced his path to power. Setting one against the other in hopes of being free thereby from the influence of other men. </p><p>Meanwhile, Kylo too was left ill at ease for what was to come. Indifferent to the coldness of winter, he stood beside a stone bench in the courtyard of the manor, gazing up at the light in a window of a towering folly in the semblance of a medieval keep, wondering how or why it was kept alight, and thinking of where Armitage might be, feeling that his spirit was as distant and inaccessible to him. It startled him therefore to see as the shadow of a human figure approached the window, obscuring the light, and drawing the curtains. There was someone there, up in the tower. Surely that meant that it was not by some fanciful mechanism that it was illuminated, like a lighthouse amid the night sky – there must be a passageway, and some prisoner there, waiting.</p><p>He let his thoughts reach out to them, and felt – or thought he felt – a warmth, a longing, reciprocate his own. He felt the being’s pain, its loneliness and helplessness, and beneath it all was strength and courage, a force akin to his own.</p><p>Kylo looked closely at the silhouette at the window and imagined that he saw the woman of the rose garden.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lord H. had Phasma bring his breakfast up to his room, apologizing for his absence on account of the onset of a cold.</p><p>Kylo was certain that the distance between them had grown further since the incident on the night of his return from Lord Pryd’es manor. He could feel the stress and anxiety which the other experienced whenever he reached out towards his mind, and yet, he did not know what could be done to intervene, suspecting that whatever intrigues were set into motion were too intricate from him to unravel with the information that he had. He was afraid to further endanger Lord Hux by his carelessness and had learned to be increasingly on his guard in the presence of the doctor, focusing his concentration upon blocking any attempts the other might make into penetrating his mind.</p><p>As frost covered the ground, little work remained for Kylo to do about the garden, and so he and the other servants were driven indoors for the greater part of the day. It was for this reason in part that he came to know about Lord H’s occupation.</p><p>The albino woman summoned him to a room occupied with several shelves and a large table upon which were laid out various drafting instruments and architectural manuals. Kylo was set about dusting and arranging these archives based on the other’s meticulous system. The work he hardly found tedious, for it gave him the opportunity to examine the man’s prodigious collection. Kylo sat on the rug surrounded by various folios, looking over each of the drafts one by one while Armitage continued to work late into the evening upon a sketch of a façade intended for a bank office in a Neoclassical style. Kylo was struck by the fastidious neatness of the lines of each of these works, finding however that most designs where rather dull and unimaginative, marked by a rigidity and strict adherence to well-worn models of aesthetics that did little to stir the spirit. Nor did the man seem to find any commission beneath his dignity, for Kylo saw such a range of subjects as a prison complex, a horses’ stable, a dockyard and a even portable boathouse, amid grandiose villas, monuments and triumphal arcs.</p><p>Among the reams of drafts, he found a few curiosities and eccentricities which at once stood out from the rest. These seemed to be personal works, for they were unmarked and undated. There was also a loose roughness about them, drawn freehand with many flourishes and sinewy curves – giving them an almost organic appearance, like structures which had risen out of the earth by the hand of nature. After having looked through and ordered at least several hundred papers, Kylo arrived at a drawer which appeared to be locked. He tried the handle with greater force but still it would not budge, he was about to ask Lord H if he had a key for it but then some instinct made him hesitate, believing that many things which were hidden and protected, were done so with reason. Perhaps a reason which would not invite confidences, and instead, only elicit the Hux’s suspicion.</p><p>...</p><p>The following night, Kylo slipped out of his quarters and returned to the studio where again he tried the drawer using a pointed instrument he had on several occasions used to pick locks in the days when he and a gang of other street urchins, the Knights of Ben, had gained notoriety as a plague upon the wealthier houses of London. He felt himself lucky to have escaped prosecution, when many of his comrades were caught and taken to the gallows.</p><p>Kylo felt a clink as the inner workings of the lock shifted, the drawer opening easily. By candlelight he felt inside for a bundle of drawings, the first few were plans of a house – a layout of the rooms of the manor, he realized. The young man reassured himself that the hall was silent and empty and then opened another folio, taking out a neat pile of papers tied with a cord. He looked them over, finding upon them architectural designs and calculations in a minute secretive scrawl, as well as bills and letters which would need more time to properly peruse. However, two attached parchments among them caught his eye – one, the design for the fountain which stood in the rose garden, the second, a map of the manor’s exterior, showing what looked like an underground pathway tracing its way from the fountain to the tower keep which he had presumed to be an inaccessible folly surrounded by an ornamental moat. Suddenly, the sound of dragging footsteps alerted him to the need to make himself scarce. He extinguished the candle and shoved the papers back into the drawer, closing it shut and hiding himself behind Lord H’s desk.</p><p>His heart pounded as he heard the footsteps draw nearer, a light coming closer and closer, casting long shadows upon the carpet.</p><p>A hand reached for an object from the desk, the faint glow receding and the door shutting behind the night-time wanderer. Kylo felt a wave of relief, waiting for a bit before creeping back towards the drawer, not satisfied until he had had at least a cursory perusal of its entire contents. His hand reached out as far as it could into its recesses, finding besides the stacks of paper, what looked to be a metal canister.</p><p>Kylo took it out and held it to the candle which he relit; even then he had little idea of what the object might be.</p><p>With some trepidation, he began to twist off the top of the cylinder. It came off easily enough, revealing what looked to be a tight wad of banknotes and something like mist, the fumes of which rose into the air bringing with them a nauseating feeling. Kylo’s interest in the contents of the flask were such that he held on to lucidity for as long as he could, reading the inscription on one of the notes as originating from Howard &amp; Kent, Architectural Firm to one Armitage Foster, before collapsing on the floor.</p><p>...</p><p>Kylo did not know how long he had been lying there, but his candle had gone out and the room was still in shadows. His head ached and his body felt sore, yet he willed himself to get up, closing the canister and doing what he could to obscure all signs of his investigations before retreating back to his own quarters, the memory of the manor’s drafts still fresh in his mind.</p><p>He lay in bed, thinking, when he heard faint footsteps approach his door in a slow and uneven pace, and then, the rattle of the handle, which would not yield to the visitor’s hand. Ren sat up at once and got out of bed – the other seemed to be startled by this, or else, had change his mind at the door’s threshold, for he could feel his fear as he inserted the key into the lock.</p><p>The door was flung open.</p><p>Standing before him was Armitage Hux in his nightgown, his face half hidden in the darkness, yet Ren could see that he had been crying. Without thinking, he pulled him into his arms, holding him as labored sobs were muffled against the fabric of his shirt. For some minutes they stood there, Kylo could feel the buildup of emotion being released, but did not know what he could do or say to comfort the man – only guessing at what had so troubled Lord H in the middle of the night.</p><p>Gently he led him by the hand into the room, and with a weak docility Armitage followed, so unlike his manner during the hours of day when he showed little sign of emotion if it could be helped.</p><p>“Lie down,” Kylo said softly, pulling back the blanket of his small bed. He could see by the candle’s light that the other’s pale face was flushed from crying and how he struggled to hide the effects of it as he wiped away his tears upon the sleeve of his robe. Kylo found a handkerchief in his drawer and pressed it into the man’s hand, he took it without hesitation, wiping his tear-stained face and runny nose.</p><p>“What is wrong with me,” mumbled Armitage, curling up upon the bed, clutching the handkerchief.</p><p>“You are unwell, sir,” Kylo smiled at him sheepishly, rubbing the other’s shoulder. “But I am glad you are here”</p><p>“Do you know why I am here?” Hux looked up at him, calmed by Kylo’s response.</p><p>“I do not, I confess, yet it is my wish to help you and to comfort you if I can”</p><p>“I-I do not know why I have come other than that I do not know where to turn, yet I suspect that you are right – it seems to me at times that you are more acutely conscious of my feelings that I am. I-I want you to...comfort me,” Hux felt nervous and embarrassed as he said the words, their meaning vague even to himself.</p><p>“How, sir?” asked Kylo, slightly surprised at the other in light of his usual coldness towards him, towards everyone as far as he had seen.</p><p>“T-touch me,” Armitage struggled to speak, pulling the blanket closer to himself, “hold me”</p><p>Kylo was affected by the man’s anxious timidity, not feeling confident in his ability to discern how to approach him. He shuffled closer to him and put his arms around Armitage’s thin frame, so that the other rested his chin on his shoulder. Ren felt a hand wrap around him too and the warmth of their embrace. There was something awkward in it, too, and it was only when he felt the man’s soft lips upon his neck that he felt more reassured as to the kind of feelings he might be nurturing in his secretive heart.</p><p>With something of his confidence returning to him, he reclined more comfortably upon the bed together with Armitage, still holding him in his arms, kissing the other’s lips, which at first remained closed to the unexpected contact, gradually opening like a blossom to the tenderness of the other’s affection. Armitage sighed in pleasure as Kylo’s hands passed over his body, moving down his back and up his thighs, lifting his long night robe beneath which he still wore his undergarments. Meanwhile, Hux felt his arms and the contours of his face as one who as blind, unable to believe that it was his pleasure to truly touch the object of his desires, and that those desires might be requited.</p><p>Kylo stroked his hair, soothing him into the undulating movements with which his organ pulsed between his thighs against the fabric of his underclothes. Slowly, Ren’s hand moved down his back, and lower still, stroking him with his fingertips until he felt the wetness of the other’s pleasure seep through his clothes. The man’s breath was warm against the crook of his neck, straining to contain the signs of his arousal. Some minutes passed before Armitage made a whimpering moan, clinging more tightly to Kylo as his body pressed against him in the final throes of short-lived ecstasy, too much for him to bear.</p><p>In his inexperience, Hux knew not to feel embarrassment at this particular failing as a lover, nor did he continue in attentiveness for Kylo’s pleasure, disbelieving that the man would enjoy these attentions from one such as himself. After his satisfaction he curled himself close to the other and felt a blissful peacefulness dispel the restless worry which he had felt for many nights, as he made himself comfortable upon the bed. He fell asleep easily beside Kylo, who thought it best if he did not speak nor question what this meant for them both.</p><p>That morning, and for several night afterwards, Hux would return to invite similar intimacies, arranging for Kylo to visit his room. In compliance to the other’s awakened desires, Ren would go to him, wondering if a time would come when Hux would trust in his affection enough to dispense with the awkward prudishness with which he greeted him. Whenever he knocked upon the man’s door, Hux appeared to be in the middle of some occupation, such as reading or reviewing a journal of calculations for his commissions, as if to feign that he had not been waiting for the appointment the entire day, driving him to distraction.</p><p>They would then proceed to talk upon indifferent matters, leaving it to Kylo to initiate their intimacy, at times with a spontaneous forcefulness which the other seemed to relish, as he silenced him with a kiss or pinned him down on the bed. Hux rarely varied their position and manner of lovemaking, although he would occasionally attempt clumsy, and at times painful movements with his hand to stimulate Kylo, although he was willing enough to be instructed.  Yet Kylo was patient with him and did what he could to appease his worries and his fears, with which their growing closeness seemed to be interlaced.</p><p>“For many nights I have heard a strange scratching noise in the chamber above mine,” murmured Kylo as he spooned the other man.</p><p>“Rats,” answered Hux, opening his eyes and placing his ear to the other’s heartbeat.</p><p>In the room hung an oil painting of Queen Elizabeth, and through the queen’s left eye gazed the bright hazel iris of another lady, peering at the strange romance that unfolded between Lord H and his servant.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>One night, when Hux failed to invite him to his chamber, Kylo heard muffled screams form the floor above, in a tongue which he believed was French, followed by a heavy silence, and then the voices of Lord H, the doctor and a woman.</p><p>He rose from his bed and made for the door, staggering backwards when he saw that there was a man standing in the hall, as if expecting him.</p><p>“I am sorry Kylo”, said Finn, blocking the passageway.</p><p>Ren proceeded forward, undeterred.</p><p>“Step aside”</p><p> “You must stay here” Finn said firmly.</p><p>“I said, step aside”</p><p> “I do not wish to hurt you Kylo, but you must not leave this hall,” Finn repeated.</p><p>Kylo punched him hard on the jaw and ran past him towards the staircase, having little time for such debates, but Finn would not allow him to escape, for he gave chase as soon as he recovered himself from the blow, throwing his full weight upon Kylo as he tried to knock him down.</p><p>They grappled on the floor and it was all Kylo could do to restrain himself from doing the man mortal harm, sensing that he was one who obeyed orders that were disagreeable to him, and yet, would carry them out to the full force of his abilities.</p><p>“Gentleman, this is neither the place nor the hour for a brawl,” said the housekeeper, their heads turning at the sound of her voice, which had something of fear in it. Finn made use of the other’s momentary distraction to knock him unconscious.</p><p>…</p><p>“I have heard some interesting information from the prisoner”</p><p>Kylo found himself lying supine upon a bed, opening his eyes to see the familiar figure of Lord H. sitting beside him on a chair.</p><p> “He tells me that he knows you,” Hux continued, his manner having little of the desperate tenderness and vulnerability which he had come to associate with the man, such that Kylo felt almost hurt by the coldness of his voice.</p><p>“Yes,” Kylo replied groggily. He had prepared himself for such questions and had studied his answers. Only a ringing pain in his head shook his self-assurance.</p><p>“Let us not mince words,” Armitage proceeded. “You had corroborated with him, in the alleyway. You had sought to make it look as though he was the attacker and you ---”</p><p>“I sought your favor, sir,” replied Kylo, reaching out for Hux’s hand, which the other withdrew in disgust.</p><p>“And yet you must have anticipated that he would give away your machinations,” said Hux, choosing to ignore all matters of sentiment lest he should find himself the victim of feeble manipulations.</p><p>“I had assumed that he would be dead before you considered him”</p><p>“You did not think that I would pay his bail and transport him here for interrogation?”</p><p>“No sir, I admire your foresight, even during times of distress you make no careless omissions”</p><p>“And I admire your flattery less than your frankness,” said Lord H. With these words, he picked up his cane and left Kylo’s bedside, leaving him to rest.</p><p>“Wait,” Kylo called after him.</p><p>“What is it?” Hux paused.</p><p>“I had heard...during the prisoner’s torture, the word transfusion –  the doctor spoke that you would assist him in performing the transfusion – and a woman, a woman was there,” Kylo tried remember more clearly, sitting up in the bed. “What strange doings took place that night, your lordship, besides the torturing of the prisoner?”</p><p>“That is of no concern to you”</p><p>“Does the man live?”</p><p>“No”</p><p>“How did the gardener die, the one who served before me?”</p><p>“You have been told”</p><p>“And yet I do not believe what I have been told”</p><p>“No good shall come of your questioning and your disbelief, your prying and your spying -- you will show your hand if you are not careful,” said Hux, not wishing to hear more.</p><p>...</p><p>During the weeks that followed, Kylo would look for opportunities when he could slip away and study again the maps and drawings which Armitage had locked. This proved more difficult than he had anticipated, as Kylo found that the other had taken to his work with a prodigious productivity, and he wondered if there was some connection between the change in their relations and the desire to accumulate funds, likely funds which he hoped were unknown to the doctor – although this he had reason to doubt. At first he considered asking Hux for the maps openly but doing so might endanger him if the doctor endeavored to search into his mind, concluded Kylo, leaving him little option other than to wait or make due.</p><p>Confirming his suspicions, Finn later told him that he would often be sent many miles to pick up letters from developers, that his master seemed to have taken on the job a contractor for various architectural firms under assumed names, giving him a small portion of the profits.</p><p>Whenever he tried to question any of the servants, and even Hux, about the happenings of that strange night, all pretended that they did not understand his meaning. Kylo felt how ludicrous his and their situation was, both parties well aware of the blatant deception, and yet, unable or unwilling to speak.</p><p>With time, he managed to appease some of Hux’s mistrust, prevailing upon the man’s fear of abandonment and longing for physical closeness to something like forgiveness. He wondered if Hux would ever come to believe that his intentions had been nothing worse than to gain access to the house and find out what he could about his father, that he meant no malice against his person and had grown to view him with affection. Hux seemed to believe him, but he could never be entirely sure.</p><p>There was a natural aversion in Armitage to making himself vulnerable to other people, and yet, it seemed as though it was this precisely the trust he craved from Kyle. Hux once told him that he believed that Kylo possessed similar abilities to those of Dr.Acabaeus, and likely, his father, and for that reason he felt some safety when he slept beside him, vowing to offer what help he could when the time came for them to leave the manor. He spoke of this as a definite thing and Ren wondered what it was that they waited for.</p><p>...</p><p>In the middle of the garden stood an old fountain. Into its base slender stems and drooping blubs of violets were engraved, leading the eye to the nest of a nightingale, at the entrance of which a silver bird did perch, ready to set wing. A still pool of dark water filled the bowl of the fountain itself, from which rose a brass astrolabe around which were set the moon and sun in silver and in gold, which moved slightly about a ring suspended on an axis whenever the winds blew.</p><p>Time and time again Kylo would visit the fountain, and yet, he felt no closer to discovering its secret – nor some means by which he could shift the weight of its stones to uncover the hidden passageway which stretched beneath the manor house.</p><p>Hux watched him from the window and realized that the other knew or suspected, and that this time, he would give him what he sought.</p><p>Kylo turned at the sound of the other’s cane, his slow familiar tread as he walked towards the fountain.</p><p>“Are interested in taking a walk together, sir?” Kylo asked, offering him his hand and helping him sit down upon the bench.</p><p>“Are you interested in poetry, Mr. Ren?” he answered. “Let us be direct. I know that you have been pilfering through my belongings –“</p><p>“My father’s belongings”</p><p>“Yes, well,” Hux flashed a look of annoyance, “it seems that they have found their way into the hands of the son in any case, is it not so?”</p><p>“Indeed sir,” Kylo admitted.</p><p>“I will assist you in interpreting a piece of poetry, do you have it with you?”</p><p>“I keep it always on my person,” he drew out the carefully folded parchment.</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>Brook, to what river dost thou go?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>O my brooklet cool and sweet !</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I go to the river there below</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Where in bunches the violets grow,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And sun and shadow meet.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Brook, to what garden dost though go?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>O my brooklet cool and sweet!</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I go to the garden in the vale</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Where all night long the nightingale</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Her love-song doth repeat.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Brook, to what fountain dost though go</em>
</p><p>
  <em>O my brooklet cool and sweet !</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I go to the fountain at whose brink</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The maid that loves thee come to drink,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And whenever she looks therein,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I rise to meet her,</em>
</p><p>“Then let us begin,” he took the parchment from him, which Kylo yielded reluctantly.“<em>Where in bunches the violets grow,” </em>he traced his finger along the stem of one of the flowers, gilded unlike the rest, up to the Hux family crest which glistened like a coin.</p><p><em>“To what garden dost though go,” </em>he pressed down upon it and Kylo could hear an inner mechanism moving<em>. </em></p><p><em> “The bird’s nest</em>,” spoke Armitage “w<em>here all night long the nightingale her love-song doth repeat</em>,” and he turned a key at the back of the winged automaton, winding it up so that they could hear faint music from somewhere below the fountain. Kylo smiled at him. </p><p>“Forgetting not, <em>where sun and shadow meet,” </em>he reached out to the sun and moon, repositioning the globes such that they eclipsed one another. “There”</p><p>“<em>I go to the fountain at whose brink the maid that loves thee come to drink</em>,” said Armitage in a whisper, “these last words I leave for you to interpret”</p><p>“When ought I to go to her?”</p><p>“Tonight, when you hear the nightingale,” replied Hux, lightly stroking his hand. “Let us go for a walk now”</p><p>Kylo took his cane from where it leaned against the bench, offering it to the man with a kiss of gratitude and affection.</p><p>...</p><p>Kylo heard music playing and slowly crept out of his room following the sound until he reached a door.</p><p> </p><p>He followed the dark passageway, like a catacomb, clutching his lantern tightly as his nerves were on end, not knowing what to expect – as if something would accost him at the next turn. The subterranean path went on for some time before he reached a door that was partially ajar. From there came a light, and music.</p><p>From the door he watched the figures of a sumptuously furnished sitting room. He saw the familiar profile of Lord H as he played upon the pianoforte. There too was Dr. Acabaeus, standing behind a boudoir by the chair of a woman in a gray gossamer dress, running a brush through her long brown hair. It was she from the garden, he had no doubt.</p><p>However, the fanciful visions which he associated with the phantom-like woman were then displaced by something sinister.  In the mirror he beheld a face unlike any he had seen before – hardly human, hardly a face at all but something monstrous, reminding one of the pygmy heads collected by warring tribes, with their taunt dry skin and cadaverous gaze, vile things that distant tribesmen would make as talismans to ward off their enemies. </p><p>Kylo felt sick, as the voyeur of this strange domestic scene of phantasms, the horrible contrast of the woman’s beautiful garment and her deformed face, the delicacy with which the vile sadist combed her fair locks, and the virtuosity of the frail and neurotic Lord H.</p><p>Yet Kylo could not take his eyes away, looking from one to the other, captivated by the danse macabre. He saw, too, as a large orange cat crawled from under the folds of the woman’s dress and then pulled at its hem with its teeth.</p><p>She pushed it aside with her heel, the creature’s cry of protest causing Lord H. to momentarily stumble with the unfamiliar melody that he played.</p><p>The cat ambled away from the boudoir and wrapped its tail around the invalid’s leg, purring its approval as the music played on, and then, sensing the smell of an unfamiliar presence, it made its way to the door – meowing to draw attention to the discovery.</p><p>Kylo crept away from the doorway, but it was too late, for Hux had turned to look at him.</p><p>“Do come in,” the man’s voice came to him.</p><p>He swallowed, thinking, as a nauseating feeling swept through him.</p><p>“Yes sir,” Kylo opened the door and walked into the sitting room, folding his hands behind his back and straightening his posture. “What melody are you playing, your lordship?”</p><p>“One of my own making,” answers Armitage, playing the music in a lower key. All the while the doctor and the woman stared at him with incredulity and what he felt to be unsuppressed hostility. Only the shock of his sudden appearance and Hux’s reception kept them in dumbstruck silence.</p><p>“What do you call it, sir?” asked Kylo, walking up to the pianoforte and standing behind Lord H. where he could see the pages of handwritten music upon the stand.</p><p>“The Decameron,” said Hux.</p><p>“Have you heard of The Decameron, Mr.Ren?” spoke the doctor, ambling towards him with an ingratiating smile.</p><p>Armitage stopped playing, he and the woman were both watching them.</p><p>“No, sir,” replied Kylo.</p><p>“A group of young nobles and their fair ladies seclude themselves in a villa just outside Florence to escape the Black Death which plagued the outside world,” explained the doctor jovially, “passing the time and amusing themselves by taking turns in telling tales. I wonder – might you have a tale for us to enliven these dull hours?” he grinned, “Lord Hux and our gray lady would be most glad to be your audience”</p><p>“Very well sir, I will oblige your whim,” said Ren, taking a seat upon the sofa across from the pianoforte.</p><p>“What kind of tale will it be?” asked with a playfulness which did not suit his grim countenance, “a tragedy, a comedy, a romance?”</p><p>“A history,” replied the young man, gathering courage.</p><p>“Excellent!” exclaimed Dr. Acabaeus, “and who shall be the central figure in your tale sir?”</p><p>“Yourself, sir,” said Ren, taking a step towards him. From the corner of his eye he saw the woman rise and back away from the boudoir, while Hux gave him a warning look.</p><p>“Ah, I see,” the provoking tone of humor in Dr. Acabaeus voice turned to one of malice. “You have been an inquisitive fellow I dare say, or is it that we one among us has been obliging in –“</p><p>Kylo did not let him finish, focusing his energy upon on the man’s eyes and watching as his body underwent a convulsion. Feeling the other trying to access his mind and destroy him from within, every fiber of the doctor’s strength fought back, redirecting the annihilating spirit which coursed through him towards Ren.</p><p>The young man saw as a trickle of blood flowed down from the old man’s ear, staining his white cravat, and the tiny veins his eyes, the piercing blackness of Snoke’s pupils, into which he felt as if he were sinking like a dark abyss.</p><p>He tried to resist it, the force that was pulling him towards annihilation – he could feel a trembling within him, as if the elements of which his physical form was constructed were slicing through the ties which bound them, bringing him closer and closer to a frightening nothingness. He fought harder, pushing back by the strength of his will against the malign influence that sought to control him.</p><p>The room seemed to recede into the distance, and even the doctor’s hideous face quaked and pulsated like an image on a screen, a watercolor painting that was being washed away from its canvas, the colors seeping into one another, creating a silhouette of darkness and light.</p><p>The colors of the doctor’s energy were all darkness; unconstrained by his physical form, they expanded rapidly in shadowy tendrils, crawling upon a barrier which Kylo’s will set between himself and the other.He felt these claws tearing away at it, slowly scratching through the light which still remained of him. He fought harder, as much in fear as in determination, not knowing what would become of him if he allowed himself to succumb to the doctor’s force.</p><p>The aura which emanated from himself intervolve with the darkness and pressed down upon it, moulding it and gathering it, as it strove for release, alternating between forms and yet to no avail. Kylo could feel the doctor’s anger and something else which gave him hope. It had been long since anyone had challenged Acabaeus’s supremacy, and he had grown used to the management of his servants, tailoring his powers of manipulation and influence to each of their unique consciousnesses. Yet to battle anew for a fresh, unfamiliar spirit shook his confidence, and left an inkling of doubt as to his own supremacy – an emotion which Ren sensed and grasped towards, twisting and fueling it.</p><p>Suddenly, an agonizing pain was felt through his back. Kylo was roused from the evanescent state in which he and the doctor had been interlocked, returning to the room where the flames of a fallen candelabra cast a hideous light upon the devil’s countenance of Acabaeus. As if replaying a memory or a dream, he saw Hux fire his pistol at something behind him, turning despite the pain to see the woman clutching her bleeding shoulder.</p><p>“Do it,” he could hear Armitage’s voice, something frantic in his expression as he looked between Kylo and Dr.Acabaeus, “Now!”</p><p>Hux aimed to fire another shot, this time, at her chest, as the woman raised her hand and cast him backwards as by some invisible force. And yet, the bullet which he fired met its mark and she too crumbled in a heap to the floor in a yowl of pain.</p><p>Ren focused on the flames as they dance upon his skin, carrying their path towards the paralyzed arms of the doctor, who held them back as the fire threatened to engulf the room. He tried to pierce this barrier and direct them towards his enemy. Strange, labored words reached him from somewhere behind him.</p><p>“Forgive me, ah forgive me,” he heard her agonized cries, “pleased forgive me”</p><p>Suddenly, he heard the sound of something cracking, momentarily distracting him, for he followed the doctor’s gaze and saw that he had twisted the hideous woman’s neck.</p><p>She had been drenched in blood and he would have been left to wonder if it was an act of mercy or of malice were it not that he sensed every fiber of the other’s essence and knew too well what it was. It was vengeance, for the woman did her bidding unwillingly, and repented of the service which she had rendered her master – favoring that his foe should overcome him, and thereby free her and the others.</p><p>But the years of subjugation had made her spirit weak, and only while near death did she dare to oppose him openly as she sent a dagger at his neck. It balanced between the doctor and Ren, who focused upon making sure that it reached its target, yet his concentration waivered, torn between the urgency of escaping the rising flames and of destroying Acabaeus.</p><p>Suddenly, he let the dagger drop, relinquishing his force from it and casting it away from them both. He gathered the flames which had approached Armitage, who cowered in one corner of the room, horror upon his face, blood flowing down the side of his head.</p><p>These flames he wielded like a wave of heat which he directed towards the doctor, the current of fire singing his skin. The other’s darkness protested against this attack, trying to get away, yet a sphere of flames gathered about him, ensnaring him until he had little choice but to retreat. With his final strength he sealed the doorway of the chamber and disintegrated himself so that his spirit passed through the floorboards like an apparition of shadows, leaving behind the husk of his body to be devoured by the fire.</p><p>Ren perceived that the battle was over, or else, postponed by his enemy’s retreat. There was no time to dawdle or relish his victory, at once he set to making his way to Hux. Taking him up into his arms and making for the door, only then did he remember the sacrificed woman.</p><p>“No! Leave her!” said Hux, as if reading his intent. Kylo seemed to waiver. He could see her half-opened eyes looking at him through the fiery glow. He took the protesting Lord H out into the dark corridor where he would be safe from the fire and then sought to return to the room, yet as he watched the flames rise higher he realized that it was a fool’s errand, that he had thought of her too late – this stranger whom he had come to know but in glimpses.</p><p>“Have you come to your senses?” Hux looked at him accusingly, and he wondered if there was not something of jealousy in his demeanor. He picked up the man off the floor where he leaned against the wall, and despite Armitage’s stern expression, he could sense that he felt a rush of pleasure at their proximity.</p><p>“Where do we go?” Kylo considered that the manor house would soon be all aflame and that it was likely beyond his strength to extinguish, a part of him likewise desiring its destruction.</p><p>“To my studio, quickly,” answered Armitage, and Kylo obeyed.</p><p>They reached the chamber and Ren set him down, bringing him his cane.</p><p>“The drawer – open it,” said Hux, giving him a key. Kylo took it and removed the canister from its half-hidden compartment. “Good, now help me gather my folios, we will take as many as we can carry, we may store them in that chest there,” he pointed.</p><p>“Ridiculous,” scowled Kylo.”Of all things –“</p><p>“What do you think we shall live on if we leave here?” Hux retorted. “There is a firm which may be willing to offer me employment, but if nearly a decade’s work is to be consigned –“</p><p>“Fine!” Kylo exhaled in exasperation, at the same time thinking that he ought not to be so surprised that the other had thought through their escape – or at least, <em>his</em> escape, perhaps more as a fantasy than anything he would dare to bring into being while the doctor still reigned.</p><p>They both set to opening drawers and filling the case with Hux’s drafts and designs, and then hauled another chest to fill with clothing and provisions for a journey from which they hoped never to return to the manor. Kylo helped Hux downstairs and out into the garden and then hauled the luggage out. He readied the horses and the coach. When he returned however, a disconcerting sight greeted him, for there stood the other servants.</p><p>Finn had brought Hux his wheelchair and was washing the blood from the slight gash upon his face that the man had neglected in the flurry of activity.</p><p>“It’s nothing, I have no time for this,” he heard Armitage, trying to swat away the other’s hand, and then finally taking the cloth from him.</p><p>“You are not leaving, fox,” said Finn, giving him a fiery look. “You cannot leave until the master returns, and he will send you to whence you shall not rise again”</p><p>“You will address me as –“</p><p>“A traitorous bastard,” said the cook, and yet he did not strike at him as Kylo expected.</p><p>The albino woman stood at the threshold of the doorway like a guard, watching them, and then Kylo saw that her gaze fell upon him. She stepped aside as he passed through and approached Hux. Finn backed away too and Kylo found it difficult to read their reactions. There was a prevailing air of uncertainty, like that of a child who discovered himself to be an orphan, and yet, could not bring himself to mourn the loss of his guardian, nor to grasp at his freedom – an idea laced with threats and warnings which took no definite form and where thereby all the more insurmountable.</p><p>“Leave,” commanded Kylo. “All of you!” he set down the heavy chest and waved his arm, shooing them away like a mob. They stared at him and then looked to one another with uncertainty and something of anger.</p><p>“Who are you to give us orders?” said the gardener’s wife, who until then had seemed to him a meek person.</p><p>“Do as you please, wait here for <em>him</em> if that is what you wish,” said Kylo.</p><p>“It would please him not, to find that we have abandoned him,” spoke the elderly woman, looking to Phasma, whose face seemed impassive. “Who would protect us if...if...”</p><p>Kylo bit his lip, he could tell what they were thinking, and certainly he could not bring it upon himself to be their keeper. He wanted nothing more to do with the house of ill omen.</p><p>“We will kill him,” said Hux decisively, “Ren shall destroy him – he well pursue us, there is no doubt, and then he will deal him the final blow”</p><p>There were murmurings amongst the servants, and in the distance he saw more strange creatures appear, one of which he recognized as the hirsute woman from the images which Pryde had revealed to him.</p><p>They all felt that their master’s hold had loosened from their minds, his influence weakened – and yet, a part of him still lingered in each of them for as long as Dr. Snoke Acabaeus lived. They did not know whether to consider themselves their own, and thereby risk his wrath to descend upon them – or to trust in this stranger who had fashioned himself as the vanquisher, and the proud and conniving Armitage Hux, with whom few of them held a close bond.</p><p>“Where are you leaving to, sir?” spoke Finn, and the whispers fell to a hush.</p><p>“That is no concern of yours,” answered Hux.</p><p>“And if we should not allow it, your leaving?”</p><p>“You insolent wretches, do you think that you can stop us – when Ren has brought Acabaeus himself to flee like a rat from the flames?” scoffed Hux, a smirk of derision playing upon his lips. Kylo did not approve of the other’s callousness and anticipated the reaction which it would stir – wondering if it was Hux’s intent to provoke them to anger, so that Kylo might strike them down there and then. But this he did not wish to do.</p><p>“We must leave, and leave alone,” Ren addressed them, his voice clam but unyielding such that none doubted that he intended to make good his resolve, if it came to that.</p><p>It was the albino woman who stepped forth first, her formidable height stooping over Hux.  To Kylo’s surprise, Armitage did not flinch when she pressed her hand to his shoulder, his own thin fingers wrapping around hers as she bowed to kiss his hair.</p><p>“Take her from here,” he could hear Hux whisper and a pang of emotion crossed the woman’s face. “You shall always have my gratitude and my aid for as long as I am able. I will send my address to the inn when it is safe to do so,” Hux pressed her hand and they both seemed to smile sadly at one another before again he turned to Kylo. “We must go,” he said.</p><p>Kylo nodded, raising the suitcases into the coach and helping Hux inside. None endeavored to stop them, although he could feel anger coursing through Finn’s blood, for the man despised Armitage for the influence he had upon he who conquered Acabaeus, believing him to be an opportunistic manipulative man who by lies had managed to wheedle his way into the other’s favor.</p><p>Nevertheless, the disheveled young man had about him an aura of power and authority which suppressed even Finn’s instinct to keep him at the manor. Yet it was the hatred of Acabaeus, and the hope of his destruction, that prevailed most strongly upon each of them.</p><p>They watched the coach depart, feeling a wound within themselves, as if a leech had been roughly pulled from their skin, the vileness of the old man lingering in their hearts and in their blood.</p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Who was she?”</p><p>Hux felt a hand shaking him by the shoulder, rousing him from his sleep. Groggily he opened his eyes, seeing Kylo beside him in the coach driver’s seat. He had been huddled close to him in his black greatcoat, leaning upon his shoulder, his face and his fingers cold with frostbite. To Kylo he gave a coat of sable which once belonged to his Lord Hux, subconsciously he felt a pleasure in the strange associations which it wove into their departure – as if recreating the memory of the past, as it ought to have been – remembering the hopes he had placed in his father to rescue him from the horrors which would shape his future, and the honors which were granted to him, all too late. In his old age Lord Hux reinstate his son’s right to his estates, whether in some ways he had sensed his approaching death, which animated the a dormant conscience by fear of being buried by the sands of time, leaving no mourners to visit his grave.</p><p>But this final act was not enough to bribe true sentiment into awakening within a heart that had long been left frigid, and in the end it was to Dr.Acabaeus that this rise in fortune was attributed -- for the doctor had ceaselessly toiled in the direction of Armitage’s ascension to the name of Lord Hux, and would live to tutor the young man in the duties befitting his station, making of him an able master towards his tenants and his servants, likewise cultivating in him a love of learning and a stoic disposition which Hux believed had served him well during the long years. If it were not for the harm done to him in his early years he wondered if he might not have learned to regard Acabaeus with affection, and in this he was like the doctor’s other dependants, forever vacillating between love and hatred towards their guardian, whose genius was put to inhumane ends, and yet, who was not without humanity for those whom fate had cast into the dregs of society.</p><p>As Armitage reflected upon his relations, it became clear to him that his feelings towards Kylo Ren were of a different nature. He had become more than a protector, patron or tutor – he wished to believe that no ulterior motive drove the other’s affection towards him, and yet he wondered what it was in his character that would awaken Kylo’s feelings of love. In introspection he saw himself as a contemptible being, and much of their relations showed him as a selfish and reserved man unaccustomed to intimacies – and yet the other had clung to him. Armitage wondered if it was this very inapproachability that had led Kylo to pursue him as a conquest, or if it was indeed pity or gain that had fueled his love.</p><p>“The woman you had shot, who was she?” Kylo repeated, of his voice intermingled with the sound of horses hooves. They were still on the road, the landscape changing to that of rolling hills swathed in morning mist.</p><p>“Would you mind it if I slept inside the coach, it is rather cold here,” said Hux irritably, “Or would you miss my company?”</p><p>“Answer me,” Ren insisted.</p><p>Hux hesitated, his brow furrowing.</p><p>“She is Lady Rey,” he said at last.</p><p>Kylo was not satisfied with this answer but did not know what to ask. Hux decided at last that he would get the sordid matter over with rather than see it resurfacing time and again.</p><p>“The woman that you saw at the hunt, she who is wedded to Lord Dameron, is a prostitute whom the good doctor had enlisted to masquerade with the grafted face of her ladyship,” said Armitage with unsparing candor. “During the operation, most of the Acabaeus’s skill and efforts were directed towards the imposter, while Lady Rey’s unfortunate new countenance was rather a botched job, as you have seen. She had been in a poor state ever since, requiring occasional blood transfusions. The doctor struck a deal with the harlot for a share of Lord Dameron’s fortune, once their inevitable divorced is finalized – it has yet to reach the papers but the many railway speculations he had made will be his ruin – and mine, if my past hopes and aspirations had not already been set aflame. I had warned him, it is true – I saw for myself the discontent of the workers who had not been paid in weeks, the shipments of steel – constantly delayed, some sites have hardly begun construction. But it is rather too late, the contracts which he made would not allow him to back away, and so he strove to ward off bankruptcy by other means – not hesitating to stoop to new alliances and new deceptions of a most unthinkable kind. I am only half sorry that she had died, the miserable creature that you saw when you first encountered Lady Rey – she could not help herself you see, when she endeavoured to kill you. She is forever under the doctor’s influence – and he, her puppet master. Perhaps more so even than I, she was a figurehead of her true self, for she possessed something of the power which you and your father had shared – and through it Dr.Acabaeus felt a certain kinship with you, a fascination with a prized possession, which he studies and provokes to action. He would often question me about what I knew of your powers, I hope I did right by feigning ignorance – indeed, even now I am not fully certain that I understand the workings of the force which you wield”</p><p>Ren felt unpleasant to hear the way in which Hux spoke of the woman, as one hardly capable of empathy. He tried to look deeper inside of him, afraid that he had misjudged them man, and saw that it was indeed a twisted form of jealousy which fueled his words. He had fallen from the doctor’s favor and it was her ladyship that supplanted him. In equal measures Armitage had despised and desired the cruel man’s approval and esteem, and since Acabaeus’s banishment from the manor house, these desires Hux had turned to Kylo Ren.</p><p>Armitage felt the reproach in Kylo’s look and a part of him crumbled beneath it, feeling a pang of shame for his vindictive satisfaction at the woman’s death. Ren made the horses slow down to a halt at the roadside and then reached out for Armitage, pulling him into his arms and helping him inside the coach compartment so that he might rest for a while. He observed how yielding the man was to his every touch, his longing for affection and his fear of abandonment taking precedence over all other desires and lowly thoughts.</p><p>“Wait,” said Armitage as Kylo was about to close the door of the coach. He took the man’s hands and kissed them, pulling Kylo closer and then reaching out for his face, his hair, which he longed to touch and press to his lips. The young man embraced him again, this time with greater tenderness, knowing that the other wanted reassurance and forgiveness.</p><p>“We will be in London soon, we shall find a room to ourselves and I will hold you close, keep you safe through the night,” Kylo whispered soothing promises until at last Armitage released him, a pathetic tearfulness in his expression which struck Ren as almost amusing in contrast to his usual severe manner, his long suppressed emotions making a mess of him when at last he opened the gates to them.</p><p>When alone in the coach compartment, Armitage tried to settle himself upon the seat, pulling the heavy blankets over himself and yet feeling a coldness which would not leave him. He was afraid of what was to come, only half believing Kylo’s promises, sensing that there was doubt in the other’s speech and knowing full well how little there was in him that was worthy of a profound love. The noble spirit which is the adornment of the downcast was not a jewel which Armitage possessed, and yet, he wondered if it was not too late to prove himself by some means to he who offered him his heart’s desire.</p><p>...</p><p>It was midday when they resolved to break their journey as Armitage beheld a sight which stirred his memories. They left their coach and horses at an inn and passed through the town where he had attended boarding school in the distant days of his youth. While the school itself was associated with the pangs of unrealized hope, he led his beloved down other familiar paths – a small woodland where the children would be taken on Sundays for fresh air. There he found the object of bittersweet reminiscences, a wooden bird feeder which hung from the branch of an oak. It was not the one which he had built, and yet, it served its purpose in marking the place of gathering for many a finch, robin and woodpecker – birds which acted contrary to their natural timidity, having grown comfortable in the presence of men, so far as to eat from the hand of a stranger.</p><p>They walked slowly down the lonely path, waiting for an elderly man to depart before taking their place beside the birdfeeder. A few feet from it was a bridge over a small rolling brook which they crossed, touched by the peacefulness of the landscape – the very sight of which seemed to sooth the spirit. As in the days of long ago, he took a handful of sunflower seeds into his palm and held it out for the birds, which took their turn to perch upon his finger and dip their beaks. By an intuition to the other’s mood, Kylo did not speak, but returned his beloved’s smile with a warmth he had not felt since the misfortunes which they had left behind. From the happiness of their safety and solitude bloomed the hope that better days may still come from the ashes of the past.</p><p>They walked further along the forest paths, while Armitage remarked at the changes which were wrought by the breath of time, how much taller the trees were since he had last passed his hand over the rough bark and searched for the secret groves of blue bells in their season. It was only in the bosom of nature’s cathedrals that he had found a sense of belonging, for when the sun shone the leaves and the petals seemed like the smile of an unchanging friend, and when the rain fell and the sky grew overcast, it were as though the gods and the sages empathized with those sorrows which they evoked by their melancholy robes. The willow passed no judgement upon his faults and his virtues, but rocked with the wind, waving its tendrils in greeting as he passed. The owl peered down at him mistrustfully with its golden sleepy eyes and the lonesome heron would take flight as he passed, and yet, even with these spirits he felt a kinship, knowing that he too would have felt as they if he had wings of his own.</p><p>It was bittersweet departure when at last they left the woods behind and returned to the town where they had their first meal since they left the manor. Again they took to the road, wishing to reach a further distance before they could consider themselves safe to seek a place to sleep. During the long journey, they each spoke of their regrets and their wrongs, as if by these confessions they would paint a sincere image of themselves, shedding any false albeit beautiful illusions, pedestals from which they feared to fall unawares. Kylo told of his thievery and deception, the unruly temper which caused harm both to himself and those who trusted in him, and the years of struggle by which he had learned to be a better master over his emotions. He told of his fight for survival and the desperate deeds which it had driven him to, sensing that the other man empathized with him and saw himself mirrored. Armitage pronounced himself as one who had spent many years in obedience to a master whose cruelty had been known to him since childhood, and yet, whose gifts, knowledge, and guardianship he had been too cowardly to shun, doubting that he would survive the ways of the world if he were to leave the accursed house and defy he who had raised him to be what he was. Kylo listened, feeling that he had known or suspect his friend’s reasons, and yet believed that there was still time to choose their own path and live by their own morals in peaceful obscurity – painting new images of the future to console Armitage’s despondency. They discussed their plans for what was to come, hoping that the skills which Armitage had acquired as an architect would serve to sustain them in their new life. In time they found a cottage not far from London where they resolved to settle. Kylo found work as a laborer on a neighboring farm, running errands in the evenings for Armitage by making journeys to and from the post for his commissions. They both found pleasure in walks in the countryside, and in the garden which they tended to with love through the passing of seasons. The quiet thatch house became a paradise in which they passed their final days of old age.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hope you enjoyed the chapter, thoughts or comments are always welcome</p></blockquote></div></div>
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